Friday, April 30, 2010

Brown, McCaskill skewer Medicare office for contracting failure

Another example of huge Government waste and inefficiency....And we think the Government can run Healthcare....THINK AGAIN!

Brown, McCaskill skewer Medicare office for contracting failure

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Surprise, Surprise....the Democrats (Dodd) didn't make the changes they said they would to compromise!

Surprise, Surprise....Senator Dodd DIDN'T MAKE THE CHANGES he said he would make to reach a compromise with the Republicans on Financial Reform... and now the Republicans.....You CANNOT TURST THEM....same old corrupt politics!

A raw deal for Republicans on financial regulatory reform
By Jon Ward - The Daily Caller | Published: 04/30/10 at 2:27 AM | Updated: 04/30/10 at 7:07 AM

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Sen. Christopher Dodd, D-Conn., left, accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid of Nev. gestures during a financial reform news conference on Capitol Hill in Washington, Wednesday, April 28, 2010. (AP Photo/Charles Dharapak)
One day after Republicans said they had secured a deal on a financial regulation bill that would allow them to move forward on debating the bill, they denounced the legislation and said it would not accomplish any of their goals for preventing bailouts or making the markets more secure.

“The legislation that we are about to consider will help the likes of Goldman Sachs, but will harm the American people,” said Sen. Richard Shelby, Alabama Republican and ranking member on the Senate Banking Committee.

“It will lead to job losses, lost opportunities for businesses to productively invest in the future, and it will ensure future bailouts,” Shelby said on the Senate floor.

Shelby, who said Wednesday that Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd, Connecticut Democrat, had given him assurances that he would make sure the regulatory reform bill ended any chance of bailouts for large financial institutions, said Thursday that the bill still contained the provisions he objected to.

“I appreciate his assurances and take him at his word, but I am concerned that there appear to be no substantive changes in the relevant sections of the bill that would reflect such assurances,” Shelby said of Dodd.

It was an acrimonious start — despite the encomiums voiced by both sides — to a debate that is expected to take at least two weeks. Republicans ended their filibuster of the bill Wednesday after Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, Nevada Democrat, said he would keep them in the chamber through midnight to make them sustain their blocking maneuver.

The GOP complaints on Thursday indicated that the main reason the party dropped their filibuster was to avoid the physical and political toll of the all-night exercise.

Dodd, responding to Shelby, said he and others had “done that work” to ensure the bill does not offer bailouts to big firms, but added: “I respect the fact that others have additional ideas on how we can make this work even better.”

Neither Dodd nor his staff have gone into detail to rebut the specific criticism that says the bill will give the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation too much flexibility in how it treats creditors of a large financial firm in the event the big bank or firm needs to be shut down.

That is one of the reasons that Republicans believe investors — especially those with political connections or leverage — will flock to large firms on the hunch that if the firm they pour money into goes down they will be repaid by the government.

Another Republican that has been involved in talks over the derivatives portion of the bill for months, Sen. Saxby Chambliss of Georgia, ranking member on the Senate Agriculture Committee, lashed out at the Obama White House for directing his counterpart, Committee Chairman Blanche Lincoln, Arkansas Democrat, to stop negotiating with him.

“I wish we were here today debating a derivatives product that had input from senators on both sides of the aisle and perhaps less input from the administration,” Chambliss said. “I am certain we could have done a much better job had we been allowed to work together in a bipartisan way.”

Chambliss argued that the bill goes too far in regulating derivatives, to the point that “it will have undesirable consequences for Main Street businesses and consumers who are already struggling in this weakened economy.”

Lincoln argued that the bill will “bring 100 percent transparency to what is currently a completely unregulated and dark marketplace,” and said the regulation “recognizes the importance of these markets.”

While Republican complaints about bailouts and overly burdensome derivatives regulation, which the White House reportedly opposes as well, have been consistent for some time, the GOP increased protests this week against the third stool of the reform bill: the consumer protection agency.

Shelby described it in Orwellian terms.

“This massive new government bureaucracy has authorities and powers to call you forward and ask you, under oath, about your personal financial affairs,” he said. “The fact so many are looking the other way on these serious threats to our civil liberties is troubling.”

Shelby staffers earlier this week compared the CPA to the Bush administration’s “total information awareness” program, which even after the 9/11 attacks caused concern about too much government over reach into citizen’s lives that it was defunded by Congress in 2003.

The Democrats’ stated objective for the CPA’s Office of Financial Research is to give the federal government better tools to know the state of the economy on a day to day, minute-to-minute basis, so they can act to prevent future crises before they spin out of control.

But Shelby staffers, speaking on background, said it would be “personal financial information, collected by the government, put into a data center.”

“This office can request and gather under subpoena all manner of financial data,” the staffer said. “This deposit activities from every individual in the country, this is small business data loans, this is a whole host of things that this new bureau would have authority and access to for every day Americans.”

The Shelby staff said that the database files would be handed over to Wall Street banks for their use, citing information on an advocacy group’s Web site that said Morgan Stanley has estimated the database will reduce their operating costs by 20 to 30 percent.

Poll: 51% favor Arizona law....We need to get illegal immigration under Control!

It will be interesting to see what approach Obama continues to take on this...so far he has been critical of the state action....I am sure he will only get more critical despite the fact that the majority of Americans are in favor such a law to begin to get illegal immigration under control....since the Federal Government is against really controlling the borders!
Poll: 51% favor Arizona law - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

Obama threatened by heckuva glob - Slow Response by Obama...too busy pontificating to ACT!

The White House was very slow to act on this environmental disaster off the Louisiana Coast....Where was Obama?....He was too busy trying to rahm down Financial Reform Legislation and attending a Civil Rights leader's funeral!!!! And too busy pontificating his propaganda to realize there might be an impending crisis!...Another reason why we don't need a rookie in the White House. We can start to change that this November by voting out the liberals in Congress and replacing them all with conservatives....

Obama threatened by heckuva glob - Washington Times

Thursday, April 29, 2010

We Need this in Texas Now!....Go Debbie Riddle

A bill like this would mean much less expense for the state and more jobs...we need immigration reform in Texas much like they now have in Arizona!

Townhall - Texas Following Arizona's Lead?

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Rush makes a lot of sense....Obama doesn't want anyone critcizing/repealing his Obamacare bill, but it's OK for him to question the Az Immigration Bil

Another example of Obama's hypocrisy....He is so out of touch with the will of the American People...He needs to be rendered powerless after November's election by electing as many conservatives as there are seats up for reelection.

Hooray for Arizona...Now we need to do it in Texas

Hooray for Arizona ..... Mexicans here and in Mexico are rather upset by the recent enactment of stricter anti-illegal alien laws by Arizona's governor.

In light of the following, that position demonstrates the typical double standard used by race-hustlers and assorted something-for-nothings. Read on, and read it to the end.

New Immigration Laws: Read to the bottom or you will miss the message...

1 There will be no special bilingual programs in the schools.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

2. All ballots will be in this nation's language.

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3. All government business will be conducted in our language.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

4. Non-residents will NOT have the right to vote no matter how long they are here.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

5. Non-citizens will NEVER be able to hold political office

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

6 Foreigners will not be a burden to the taxpayers. No welfare, no food stamps, no health care, or other government assistance programs. Any burden will be deported.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

7. Foreigners can invest in this country, but it must be an amount at least equal to 40,000 times the daily minimum wage.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

8. If foreigners come here and buy land... options will be restricted. Certain parcels including waterfront property are reserved for citizens naturally born into this country.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

9.. Foreigners may have no protests; no demonstrations, no waving of a foreign flag, no political organizing, no bad-mouthing our president or his policies. These will lead to deportation.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

10. If you do come to this country illegally, you will be actively hunted &, when caught, sent to jail until your deportation can be arranged. All assets will be taken from you.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

Too strict?......

The above laws are the current immigration laws of MEXICO !!!

These sound fine to me, NOW, how can we get these laws to be America's immigration laws??

WAKE UP, AMERICA - we are about to lose our country.........

Chicago Mob Approach Obama takes to the White House Press Corps....not healthy!

Interesting video about the corrupt, mobster approach Obama takes toward the press in an effort to control them and their message....This is not a healthy situation for the country and may be why there is not more objective reporting since many white house press corp members fear retaliation if they report against the "regime"


Obama's blundered strategy against Iran....You won't feel safer after reading this...

Obama pontificates about his philosophy on nuclear weapons and all he is doing is putting us at a much greater risk of attack in the future...Here's the Heritage Foundation's take on where it stands now....Another reason to render him powerless after November by voting in as many conservatives as is possible....


The Ahmadinejad Victory Tour

Yesterday, State Department spokesman P.J. Crowley confirmed Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad had submitted an application for a visa to attend the United Nations nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty conference in New York next month. Since Crowley also confirmed that Ahmadinejad is likely to be awarded the visa, the Iranian President can now look forward to witnessing first hand the failure of President Barack Obama's Iran policy.

At first the White House believed that President Barack Obama's sheer power of personality and persuasion would be enough to convince the Iranian regime to give up their nuclear program. So the President gave a conciliatory speech in Cairo, sent a direct message to Iran's Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei, and opened up direct talks with the Iranian regime. The results have been crystal clear: the Iranian regime has only accelerated its nuclear program, accelerated its ballistic missile program, and further crushed internal dissent, all while the Obama administration remained silent as the Green Revolution was brutally crushed.

Now the Obama administration is seeking "crippling" sanctions on Iran through the U.N. Security Council. This is another Obama fantasy that plays right into Iran's "cheat, retreat, and delay" nuclear strategy. Whatever goodwill the Obama administration hoped to get from Russia by caving into their New START demands has not paid off. With help from Turkey, China and now Egypt, Iran's rope-a-dope U.N. diplomacy will render any U.N. sanctions regime completely toothless.

All these Ahmadinejad victories over President Obama would not be so alarming if the Obama administration were not actively undermining our nation's ability to deter and defend against Iranian nuclear attack. First there was President Obama's decision to cancel missile defense installations in Eastern Europe. The Obama administration claimed that their alternative system, called the Phased Adaptive Approach, could defend U.S. allies by 2020. But a recent Defense Intelligence Agency (DIA) report warns Iran may be able to reach the United States with an intercontinental ballistic missile (ICBM) by 2015. This means President Obama has created a new "window of vulnerability" for our enemies to exploit.

And then there is President Obama's New START agreement which limits U.S. conventional, nuclear and missile defense options. Former director of the Missile Defense Agency, Retired Air Force Lt. Gen. Henry Obering, noted in The Washington Times this week: "Strangely, New START may actually rest on what Russia permits the United States to do to defend Americans and our allies from such a missile attack. This equation is both bizarre and unsafe."

"Bizarre and unsafe" is a generous assessment of the Obama administration's efforts to protect America from Iran's nuclear ambitions so far. The Obama administration must change course. The United States should impose and enforce the strongest possible sanctions, even if doing so requires action outside of the U.N. framework, and step up public diplomacy efforts to discredit the regime’s legitimacy and offer support to opposition groups, such as the Green Movement. Most importantly the Obama administration must make the commitment to create and sustain a layered missile defense system, designed to counter every range of Iranian missiles in all stages of flight, including those that threaten the territory of the United States and its allies. This would include scrapping New START, returning missile defense installations to Eastern Europe and fully funding missile defense. For more, see 33 Minutes.

Wednesday, April 28, 2010

64% of Americans don't think Washington knows what it's doing with regard to the Economy!

More info from the Heritage Foundation about the Financial Reform the Democrats are trying to jam through the Senate.....and remember the real culprits, Freddie and Fannie are NOT regulated......What a joke...


The Senate's Goldman Kabuki

The New York Times reports this morning, "Politicians like nothing more than a convenient foil, and Democrats locked in a stubborn impasse with Republicans over new rules to govern Wall Street believe they have found a gold-plated one in Goldman Sachs. Democrats say the convergence of their push for an overhaul of financial regulation and a prominent federal securities case against the prestigious investment firm is a matter of coincidence, not planning." Sen. Byron Dorgan (D-ND) added: "If the disclosures at these hearings are not the final nail that persuades the American people to demand this be done now, I don’t know what would be."

But the big problem for the leftist majorities in Congress is that the American people just don't believe that Washington has any idea about why the financial crisis happened or how to regulate our financial system. According to Rasmussen Reports, 64% of Americans are not confident that policymakers in Washington know what they’re doing when addressing the current economic problems on Wall Street. Intent on proving his ignorance of how finance works, Dorgan went on to say: "To bet against your clients, to bet against your country, all for the sake of big profits. The timing is serendipitous but it should increase the pressure on Republicans." Is Dorgan for real? Does he really believe that anyone who did not blindly keep inflating the housing bubble was "betting against your country"? Is it now unpatriotic to believe that housing prices cannot infinitely rise?

The left would have us believe that the 2008 financial crisis was all the fault of greedy Wall Street bankers like those at Goldman Sachs who dared to change their investment strategy on the belief that housing prices were inflated. To protect against future financial meltdowns, the left wants to give more power to the same federal regulators who failed to recognize the systemic risk caused by the very bubble Goldman and others correctly identified. In fact, one of the main reasons for yesterday's hearing was to deflect attention away from Washington's role in creating the 2008 financial crisis.

It was the government-created and subsidized Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that played leading roles in the markets at the center of the housing storm. But the left prioritized their political goals over financial reality. Rep. Barney Frank told the House Financial Services Committee: "These two entities--Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--are not facing any kind of financial crisis," and "[t]he more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see in terms of affordable housing." And the author of thevery financial reform bill currently being debated in the Senate, Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT) , told CNN in July of 2008: "To suggest somehow that [Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac] are in trouble is simply not accurate." Just two months later, completely overrun by bad debt, both companies were placed in conservatorship.

So unable to acknowledge the government's role in the last crisis, not only were Fannie and Freddie not mentioned at yesterday's hearing, they are not included in Dodd's financial regulation bill at all. Hence the need for a villain like Goldman. And what does Goldman think of the actual legislation the left is using them to pass? They are for it, Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein confirmed yesterday.

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Here's Obama's idea of Fiscal Responsibility??? He doesn't have a clue!

The Obama Fiscal Responsibility Farce Continues

Today President Barack Obama's National Commission on Fiscal Responsibility and Reform will convene for the first time at the White House. Tasked with making recommendations to Congress that would put the budget in primary balance by 2015 and "meaningfully improve" our nation's long-term fiscal outlook, the commission meets a little over a month after Congress approved a new $2.5 trillion health care entitlement that the Obama administration now confirms will increase our nation's total health care spending.

This is a now familiar pattern for the White House: first enact record breaking levels of deficit spending, then turn right around and promise austerity sometime in the future. This February, after signing the largest single-year increase in domestic federal spending since World War II, President Obama held a “fiscal responsibility” summit designed to “send a signal that we are serious” about putting the nation on sounder financial footing. The Washington Post’s Dana Milbank quipped at the time: “Holding a ‘fiscal responsibility summit’ at the White House in the middle of a government spending spree is a bit like having an Alcoholics Anonymous meeting at a frat house on homecoming weekend.”

The leftist majorities in Congress are no better. Congress has now missed its April 15 deadline for enacting a budget resolution, which is one of the few pieces of legislation that Congress must pass annually. If Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) fails to pass a budget it will be the first time since the 1974 Congressional Budget Act that the House has failed to do so. All over the country, recession-weary families are examining their income and spending, making difficult decisions, and setting family budgets. Yet Congress—despite a $1.5 trillion deficit in 2010 and historic deficits as far as the eye can see—cannot manage to set any budget framework for the next few years.

Some may argue that Congress does not need to pass a budget since President Obama's commission will be making all the tough choices. But this would only make our fiscal crisis worse: Congress is under deadline to finance the FY 2011 spending bills before September 30—well before the commission is even scheduled to release its report. Without a budget, Congressional appropriators are completely free to ignore all caps on discretionary spending for fiscal year (FY) 2011. Worse, the commission itself is fatally flawed since: 1) its recommendations are not guaranteed a vote in Congress; 2) its recommendations will be considered by a lame duck Congress; 3) there is no indication the commission will take any input from public hearings.

Last week, Pew Research Center released a survey showing just 22% of respondents said they trust the federal government almost always or most of the time. Last March Pew found by 54% to 37%, people favored the government exerting more control over the economy. Now, by 51% to 40%, a majority of Americans say they want less government control. If President Obama's fiscal responsibility commission is to have any credibility with the American people, the first item on its agenda must be the full repeal of the President's $2.5 trillion health care entitlement.

Friday, April 23, 2010

Administration Defends Health Law Despite Medicare Report Hiking Nation's Tab

Another "awakening" about Obamacare.....The Costs for the American People will go UP!!!!....who would have thought?.....Are you kidding me?...everyone knew that and that's why the vast majority of the American People were/are against it!....It will cost us more AND it's an additional entitlement that CANNOT AFFORD!


FOXNews.com - Administration Defends Health Law Despite Medicare Report Hiking Nation's Tab

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Uncovered Portions of Blacked-Out Subpoena Suggest Obama Advised Blagojevich on Senate Replacement

Another example of the corrupt, Chicago Mob politics that Obama has brought to the White House....I would not be surprised in the least if Obama, Rahm and the whole crew were involved in this up to their eyeballs.....Wouldn't it be great if they exposed him for what is his....A Crook!....

FOXNews.com - Uncovered Portions of Blacked-Out Subpoena Suggest Obama Advised Blagojevich on Senate Replacement

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Thursday, April 22, 2010

Grassley Slams GM, Administration Over Loans Repaid With Bailout Money

Interesting that Government Motors (GM) has paid back their government loans with more government bailout money....What is this world coming to????....and they are all over TV using it as a marketing tool....



FOXNews.com - Grassley Slams GM, Administration Over Loans Repaid With Bailout Money

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ACORN CEO: Tea Parties a 'Bowel Movement,' Future Will Be Worse Than Segregation

I'll bet you won't see this article on ABC, NBC or CBS much less on CNN or MSNBC...The State Run Media will not touch this....ACORN is the type of organization that Obama has been close to for years.....Aren't you PROUD....just one more bad association....And he says he's not a Socialist!

FOXNews.com - ACORN CEO: Tea Parties a 'Bowel Movement,' Future Will Be Worse Than Segregation

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Obama, Alinsky, and Scapegoats

Here's an article from a year ago about Saul Alinsky's impact on both Hillary and Obama...It's interesting because you can see that this IS HIS strategy and it is the way he has proceeded to get Healthcare and other Socialist/Big Government programs in place....You can see why we demonizes his targets...Wall Street, Bankers, Etc...This is his Bible and it's Dangerous.... We get to vote in November!...Let's vote to neutralize Obama this November and get rid of him and his Alinsky approach next November.

Obama, Alinsky, and Scapegoats

Hide the Decline...The Myth of Climate Change presented Comically

Light video about the myth of Climate Change that is being spouted throughout liberal ranks.....


Don't Be Fooled...Obama will raise taxes and won't address spending and entitlements...

Don't believe Obama's rhetoric....he is all for a VAT Tax and will raise taxes for all Americans (just like socialist Europe) and he will NOT address the out of control spending and runaway entitlements like the recent healthcare entitlement that we cannot afford.


Obama suggests value-added tax may be an option

By CHARLES BABINGTON, Associated Press Writer Charles Babington, Associated Press Writer – Wed Apr 21, 7:14 pm ET

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama suggested Wednesday that a new value-added tax on Americans is still on the table, seeming to show more openness to the idea than his aides have expressed in recent days.

Before deciding what revenue options are best for dealing with the deficit and the economy, Obama said in an interview with CNBC, "I want to get a better picture of what our options are."

After Obama adviser Paul Volcker recently raised the prospect of a value-added tax, or VAT, the Senate voted 85-13 last week for a nonbinding "sense of the Senate" resolution that calls the such a tax "a massive tax increase that will cripple families on fixed income and only further push back America's economic recovery."

For days, White House spokesmen have said the president has not proposed and is not considering a VAT.

"I think I directly answered this the other day by saying that it wasn't something that the president had under consideration," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters shortly before Obama spoke with CNBC.

After the interview, White House deputy communications director Jen Psaki said nothing has changed and the White House is "not considering" a VAT.

Many European countries impose a VAT, which taxes the value that is added at each stage of production of certain commodities. It could apply, for instance, to raw products delivered to a mill, the mill's production work and so on up the line to the retailer.

In the CNBC interview, Obama said he was waiting for recommendations from a bipartisan fiscal advisory commission on ways to tackle the deficit and other problems.

When asked if he could see a potential VAT in this nation, the president said: "I know that there's been a lot of talk around town lately about the value-added tax. That is something that has worked for some countries. It's something that would be novel for the United States."

"And before, you know, I start saying 'this makes sense or that makes sense,' I want to get a better picture of what our options are," Obama said.

He said his first priority "is to figure out how can we reduce wasteful spending so that, you know, we have a baseline of the core services that we need and the government should provide. And then we decide how do we pay for that."

Volcker has said taxes might have to be raised to slow the deficit's growth. He said a value-added tax "was not as toxic an idea" as it had been in the past.

Since then, some GOP lawmakers and conservative commentators have said the Obama administration is edging toward a VAT.


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Wednesday, April 21, 2010

All the President's Goldman Sachs Men

Interesting article from Michelle Malkin about Obama's link to Goldman Sachs

Michelle Malkin : All the President's Goldman Sachs Men - Townhall.com

The REAL story about the Democrat/Wall Street Connections

Typical for these liberal Democrats....more payoffs....more cozying up with Bankers to get what they want.....This is a bad Financial Reform Bill and I just hope the Republicans stand up and be counted to try to stop it.....it's just more Big Government Regulation and Control over Business in America.

The Crony Capitalist Threat to Our Economic Freedom

The Obama administration's game plan for passing their financial regulatory reform plan is clear: ignore the details of their bill, demonize Wall Street, and cast conservatives as the pawns of big bankers. But as Politico reports today, there's a complication in their battle plan: "The Democratic Party is closer to corporate America — and to Wall Street in particular — than many Democrats would care to admit."

Politico should be commended for acknowledging the left's cozy ties with corporate America, but then they go on to write: "Some Democrats acknowledge that the legislation — and the harsh anti-Wall Street rhetoric — could cost them campaign contributions from the financial services sector in what is already shaping up to be a tough election year." This is just flat wrong. As evidence and logic clearly demonstrate, the left's harsh anti-business rhetoric and glee for expansive regulation is a boon to their campaign coffers. As USA Today reports, Goldman Sachs alone has given nearly $900,000 since January 2009 to congressional candidates, and according to the non-partisan Center for Responsive Politics, 69% of the firm's contributions went to Democrats while 31% went to Republicans.

In fact, Goldman is not opposed to Obama's Wall Street Bailout Bill at all. As a Goldman official told Politico Monday: "We're not against regulation. We're for regulation. We partner with regulators." This echoes reporting done by The Huffington Post on loopholes in the banking bill. HuffPo was told by a financial services lobbyist: "Obtaining a carve-out isn't rocket science. Just give Chairman Dodd (D-CT) and Chuck Schumer (D-NY) a ****load of money." And loads of money is what Wall Street has been giving to the authors of the Wall Street Bailout Bill. The Wall Street banker at the center of Goldman's SEC fraud complaint recently solicited money from his banker friends for Sen. Schumer describing him as "one of the few members of Congress that has consistently supported the hedge fund industry."

Sens. Dodd and Schumer are not the only ones colluding with bankers to profit from American taxpayers. Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) scored $37,000 from a January fundraiser that included Goldman executives. And The Washington Examiner has detailed that not only did President Barack Obama receive seven times as much money from Goldman employees as President Bush did from Enron employees, but then-candidate Obama's $950,000 2008 total from Goldman executives and employees is the most a politician has raised from a single company since campaign finance reform. It's also more than the combined Goldman haul of every Republican running for president, Senate and the House.

There is a term for the Obama administration's practice of using their government power to play favorites in the private sector: crony capitalism. Former vice president at the Federal Reserve Bank of Dallas Gerald O'Driscoll writes in The Wall Street Journal:

The federal government controls 90% of housing finance. Policies to encourage home ownership remain on the books, and more have been added. Fed policies of low interest rates result in capital being misallocated across time. Low interest rates particularly impact housing because a home is a pre-eminent long-lived asset whose value is enhanced by low interest rates.

Distorted prices and interest rates no longer serve as accurate indicators of the relative importance of goods. Crony capitalism ensures the special access of protected firms and industries to capital. Businesses that stumble in the process of doing what is politically favored are bailed out. That leads to moral hazard and more bailouts in the future. And those losing money may be enabled to hide it by accounting chicanery.

It is because of these crony capitalist policies that the United States has dropped out of the exclusive club of free economies and was graded “mostly free” for the first time in the Index of Economic Freedom's 16-year history. As Heritage's Center for Data Analysis Director Bill Beach explains, this has a real impact on the lives of Americans:

While the U.S. economy undoubtedly is righting itself from the most severe recession since the 1930s, it is doing so at a glacial pace. Clearly, the burden of public policies that reduce the free use of personal property and retard the unsubsidized risk taking of entrepreneurs are lengthening the recovery process. The real cost of this sluggishness are the millions of unemployed Americans who continue to wait for the return of economic spring and the millions more who hope for a better economic times. The real source of this human cost – the real driver of persistent economic want – is the erosion of our economic freedom caused by these government policies.

Tuesday, April 20, 2010

Historical context on Clinton's ridiculous remarks about the Tea Party Movement

Here's some real historical perspective around the ridiculous remarks Bill Clinton made about the Tea Party and Comments Currently being made against the Government's Liberal/Socialistic actions. And this is from a man that should know...Dick Morris served as a political consultant under Bill Clinton.

CLINTON PLAYS THE OKLAHOMA CITY CARD

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

Published on DickMorris.com on April 20, 2010

Printer-Friendly Version

Former President Bill Clinton yesterday criticized conservatives who are "vilifying" government and its workers warning that such rhetoric could lead to a repetition of the horrific attack on the Federal Office Building in Oklahoma City in 1995 that marred his presidency.

Apart from the absurdity of likening elderly Medicare recipients pushing walkers to the likes of Timothy McVeigh and the right wing militias, Clinton's comments totally ignore the real history of Oklahoma City.

It was not anti-government rhetoric that inspired McVeigh to do his dastardly deed. According to the killer himself, it was the action of the federal government during the Waco raid that incited him to violence. That the attack on the Federal Office Building took place on the anniversary of the Waco raid underscores the connection.


Bill Clinton was far from blameless in the Waco attack. While he sought to shift the responsibility to Attorney General Janet Reno, acting as if he were merely a by-stander, subsequent histories make it clear that he was smarting from criticism that the failure of the feds to act and their continued toleration of the siege showed him to be too weak to be a good president. He would often complain about the unfairness of this coverage to me as he recounted the events leading up to the Waco raid.

The Obama strategy of vilifying the tea party protesters and trying to link them to the violence of Oklahoma City is cynical and ridiculous. The tea party protesters are, in many cases, decorated war veterans and can, in the main, only be described as patriots. That Obama needs to paint them as violence prone extremists who are fanning flames that could lead to Oklahoma City-style bombings is offensive and vile in the extreme.

Why is Obama waging such unprincipled war on the tea party people? Because, at last, the Republicans have come up with an activist base to counter the ravages of the likes of Acorn and Moveon.org. The GOP is coming up with a ground game and it scares the daylights out of the Democrats.

The Republican Party lost the elections of 2006 and 2008 on the ground. They were out-worked and out-hustled by their Democratic opponents. But Obama's determined move toward socialism has energized the Republican base and brought them out into the streets. In walkers and wheelchairs, the elderly are protesting the one half trillion dollar cut in Medicare. Veterans are protesting the laxity in the war on terror. And businessmen are remonstrating against the tax and spend plans of the Obama Administration.

In our new book 2010: Take Back America - A Battle Plan, we lay out a plan for individual activism to help win Congress back. It is the energy and the impetus that flows from the tea party activists that makes such a strategy possible. The silent majority is no longer silent. To make them out to be subversive is ridiculous.

The plain fact is that to take back Congress, we will need to win about 40 House seats. That means that 10% of the seats will change hands. What are the other 90% of us to do? In our book, we urge those who live in districts that are not in play to "adopt a Democrat" to oppose and work to dislodge him from power. Send his opponent your checks and email your friends to focus on helping the Republican in the district.

The tea party is the army of reform, not of subversion. They are the defenders of our free market system and they deserve our respect, not the innuendo that Clinton is peddling.

Princess Pelosi - This Liberal Congress doesn't think they need to live by the values we honor

Thought you might like to see where your money goes.

I don't care who you are ... Democrat, Republican, or Independent.... liberal or conservative.... blue state or red state.... you have to be appalled at the sheer gall of this woman!

This is QUEEN PELOSI'S NEW JET!!! And the Democrats talk about Sarah's dresses???
Queen Pelosi wasn't happy with the small USAF C-20B jet, Gulfstream III, that comes with the
Speaker's job..... OH NO! Queen Pelosi was aggravated that this little jet had to stop to refuel,
so she ordered a Big Fat, 200-seat, USAF C-32, Boeing 757 jet that could get her back to
California without stopping! I understand that a former Speaker of the House, Newt Gingrich,
flew commercial most of the time...

Many, many legislators walked by and grinned with glee as Joe informed every one of what
Queen Nancy's Big Fat Jet costs us (the hard working American tax payers) literally thousands
of gallons of fuel every week.

Since she only works 3 days a week, this gas guzzling jet gets fueled and she flies home to
California every Friday and returns every Monday, at a cost to the taxpayers ( YOU and ME
are those taxpayers! ) of about $60,000.00 one way!

As Joe put it ..."unfortunately we have to pay to bring her back on Monday night and
that costs us another $60,000.00! " Taxpayers, that is $480,000.00
per month and that is an annual cost to us of $5,760,000.00!!!
That is Five Million, Seven Hundred Sixty Dollar’s.

No wonder she complains about the cost of Iraq war ... it might cramp her style and she is
styling on my back and yours . I think of the military families in this country doing without
and this woman, who heads up the MOST do-nothing Congress in the history of our country, keeps fueling that jet! while doing absolutely nothing.

Queen Pelosi wants you and me to conserve our carbon footprint. She wants you and me
to buy smaller cars and Obama wants us to get a bicycle pump and air up our tires. Who do
these people think they are??? Their motto is ... Don't do as I do ... JUST DO AS I SAY!

And on top of that ... now she wants to tax our IRA's & 401K's!



If you think this is outrageous, forward it to all those on your email list! Keep in mind the
figures above DO NOT include the cost of plane or crew ..... just the fuel!!! One has to
wonder what the total package costs us?

If you agree, pass this on, if not, delete it!!!

BUT REMEMBER IF YOU DELETE THIS, that's one reason why this
country is in the mess we're in now.

‘Regime’ Was Used to Describe Bush 6,500 Times

A video of Glen Beck addressing the comments on MSNBC....that SAME language was used by MSNBC and these same liberal talking heads against the Bush Administration. What hypocrisy!......Thank God no one watches MSNBC...

Breitbart.tv » Beck Answers Klein: ‘Regime’ Was Used to Describe Bush 6,500 Times

Will Obama return the almost $1 Million he received in contributions from Goldman??? Top Contributors to Barack Obama

Don't bet on it!

Top Contributors to Barack Obama | OpenSecrets

Monday, April 19, 2010

MSMBC Liberals Say Folks on the Right are inciting Violence

You know when George Bush was President the MSNBC talking heads were spurting out all kinds of hate about the Iraq and George Bush personally....and now that this President and Administration has acted directly in opposition to the will of the American People AND used very corrupt, backdoor trick to get legislation passed (ie Obamacare)they are critical because Americans are standing up and saying NO!....Americans can see they are losing their rights and freedoms and they are getting smothered in debt. Guess what MSNBC the American people will continue to be heard and they understand that violence is not the answer....the answer is Voting in the November Election to get as many of the liberal politician out of office.

Spitzer: Goldman suit no coincidence

Another person saying the Goldman Sachs suit is not coincidental...Seems like an abuse of power by the Administration IF the orchestrated this to try to jam through fincancial reform legislation, BUT I certainly wouldn't put it past them...This Administration operates more like a marxist, totalitarian government than the United States of American. Doesn't seem as if there is any honesty, values, or integrity. We need to get them out in November of this year and ALL out in November of 2012 including Barak!

Spitzer: Goldman suit no coincidence - Andy Barr - POLITICO.com

White House Caught Altering Stimulus Baseline Projection by 7 Million Jobs

Another example of the White House adjusting the facts to make the case they want to make....Why should Obama be bothered by the truth????? This IS the most untruthful and corrupt Administration ever....November is coming and we can effect a REAL CHANGE.....

White House Caught Altering Stimulus Baseline Projection by 7 Million Jobs

This Administration is a joke!....Do they think we are all Stupid????

Here's an article where key members of the Administration are out trying to tell us they are more concerned about the deficit than the Bush Administration was???? Are they kidding....The last year of the Bush administration the deficit was under $500 billion....now it is at least three times that with Obama in office just one year...and that is with a very conservative/not realistic deficit number on the Obamacare monstrosity of a bill....and every time the Democratic Congress passes a spending bill to extend entitlements they call it an emergency so they don't have to pay for them?????.....They continue to think the American Public is STUPID!....We see through this easily....and WE GET TO VOTE STARTING IN NOVEMBER 2010 AND CAN VOTE THEM ALL OUT OF OFFICE.

FOXNews.com - Administration to Tea Parties: We're on Your Side

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You Can't Trust Obama....He continues to Lie to the American People

Another Example of how Obama outright lies to the American People. This man will say ANYTHING to get what he wants....Not only is he NOT Conservative, he's not truthful......

There is Nothing Conservative About This President

According to a new poll by the Pew Research Center, public confidence in government is at one of the lowest points in a half century. Pew Research Center president Andrew Kohut writes in today's Wall Street Journal: "A desire for smaller government is particularly evident since Barack Obama took office." Last March, by 54% to 37%, more people said it was a good idea for the government to exert more control over the economy. Now, by 51% to 40%, a majority of Americans say they want less government control.

President Obama has always tried to cast himself as a centrist. During the 2008 campaign, he promised Americans he would cut their taxes, expand the military, and enact "a net spending cut" for the federal government. Lower taxes, a strong defense and shrinking the size of government; these are core conservative beliefs. Unfortunately, President Obama has completely abandoned them by raising taxes on lower-income Americans, cutting defense spending, and enacting a $862 billion failed stimulus.

And we haven't even mentioned the President's health care plan yet. With polls showing that the President's health care plan has only gotten less popular since it became law, the White House has been desperate to portray their plan in as centrist a light as possible. So on March 30th, President Obama told "Today" show host Matt Lauer that "a lot of ideas in terms of the exchange, just being able to pool and improve the purchasing power of individuals in the insurance market, that originated from the Heritage Foundation." Heritage Center for Health Policy Studies director Robert Moffit responds in today's Washington Post:

The Obama health-care law "builds" on the Heritage health reform model only in the sense that, say, a double-quarter-pounder with cheese "builds" on the idea of a garden salad. Both have lettuce and tomato and may be called food, but the similarities end there.
...
For us, the health insurance exchange is to be designed by the states. It is conceived as a market mechanism that allows individuals and families to choose among a wide range of health plans and benefit options for those best suited to their personal needs and circumstances. People would have a property right in their health policy, just like auto or homeowners' policies, and be able to take it with them from job to job.

Under the Heritage design, individuals could choose the health plan they want without losing the tax benefits of employer-sponsored coverage. The exchange we propose would be open to all state residents and -- very importantly -- be free of federal regulation.

Under the president's law, however, the congressionally designed exchanges are a tool imposed on the states enabling the federal government to standardize and micromanage health insurance coverage, while administering a vast and unaffordable new entitlement program. This is a vehicle for federal control of state markets, a usurpation of state authority and the suppression of meaningful patient choice. Heritage finds this crushing of state innovation and experimentation repugnant.

This law constitutes a massive alteration of the constitutional balance of power between the federal government and the states, and strikes at the heart of American federalism.

This is not the first time the Obama administration has falsely claimed Heritage Foundation support for its policies. During the 2008 campaign, then-candidate Obama ran a multimillion-dollar television ad falsely claiming that we supported his tax plan. We did not. Then just last month, an Obama Treasury official falsely suggested to the U.S. Chamber of Commerce that we supported the administration's financial reform plan. We do not.

We understand that the President is frustrated by the fact that the American people soundly reject his push to turn our country into a European social welfare state. But he only undermines his own credibility when he tries to use our good conservative name as cover to support his wildly unpopular policy positions

America’s constitutionalist revolt - Breaking News

Good article that focuses NOT on who the Tea Partiers are, BUT what they are saying and what they are saying is the key for the movement in American for Real Change starting when we vote in November 2010.....It's about restoring the Constitutional limits on Government and spending and restoring Freedoms....It would probably be TOO MUCH to ask the media to stop bashing who they say the Tea Partiers are, but concentrate on their message....That message makes a lot of sense.

America’s constitutionalist revolt | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Congress may get fined by its own health-care law | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

In my opinion this will NEVER happen....with this corrupt Administration the Congress will simply be exempted from being declared an employer. As we have seen in so many cases the Congress does NOT consider themselves the same as the rest of the American Public...they need not be exposed to the same laws and restrictions that we are....You Watch....Trust Me....

Congress may get fined by its own health-care law | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Poll: Trust in Big Government Near Historic Low

There is movement nationwide AGAINST big government....We need to take full advantage of that this November when we get a chance to vote out the liberal, big government members of the House and many in the Senate....we need to get control with legislators that are for smaller government, less spending, conservative leanings, lower taxes, strong national defense, great pride in American values and a real dedication to uphold the Constitution and Freedoms that it provides.

FOXNews.com - Poll: Trust in Big Government Near Historic Low

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Sunday, April 18, 2010

Friday, April 16, 2010

Rush: We Will Really Thank You in November, Mr. President

A great clip from Rush today 4/16.....and Mr President Rush is right we will really start thanking you in November of 2010 and we'll Thank your way out of office in November 2012...


Breitbart.tv » Rush: We Will Really Thank You in November, Mr. President

Obama tied to Goldman Sachs - Follow the Money

When they follow the money they will see that Obama is closely tied to Goldman Sachs....and I agree with this article the problems in the past were driven by Fannie and Freddie and that's where the reform needs to start.


Republicans seek to tie Obama to Goldman
By Michael O'Brien - 04/16/10 01:47 PM ET
Republicans sought to tie President Barack Obama to Wall Street firm Goldman Sachs after it was hit with civil fraud charges.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) released a statement after the Securities and Exchange Commission filed charges against the Wall Street titan, calling the firm a "key supporter" of the president's bid to reform the nation's financial regulatory system.

"These are very serious charges against a key supporter of President Obama’s bill to create a permanent Wall Street bailout fund," Boehner said Friday in the statement. "Despite President Obama’s rhetoric, his permanent bailout bill gives Goldman Sachs and other big Wall Street banks a permanent, taxpayer-funded safety net by designating them ‘too big to fail.’ Just whose side is President Obama on?"

The Republican leader's words are the clearest sign that the charges against Goldman will play a part in the increasingly tense debate in Washington over regulatory reform, where each side has sought to link the other to large, corporate interests.

Goldman was hit with fraud charges on Friday for having allegedly used financial instruments that bet on the failure of subprime mortgages, a driving cause of the financial crisis and depressed housing market.


Boehner's office also pointed to Goldman employees having collectively contributed more than almost any other company or institution to Obama during the presidential campaign.

But the charges also come amid a backdrop of an increasingly hot financial reform debate in Washington, which is set to take the stage in coming weeks in the Senate.

Republicans blasted Senate Democrats' bill as contributing to a neverending bailout fund, and doing very little to address "too big to fail" financial instutions.


Republicans have argued that the Senate's Wall Street reform bill would lead to permanent bailouts of troubled banks because of a $50 billion fund that is set up to pay for dissolving financial institutions whose collapse could threaten the economy. Republicans argue taxpayers will have to bolster the fund with additional resources.

Democrats and the White House have hit back hard at the charges, with Senate Banking Commitee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) stating that the fund was a GOP idea. Sheila Bair, the head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corporation, has also said the legislation would not lead to permanent bailouts.



RELATED ARTICLES
•Goldman Sachs charged with fraud
Democrats have responded also by accusing Republicans of being in the pocket of Wall Street banks like Goldman Sachs, and being interested in doing nothing to address the risk of future financial crises. The White House hinted Friday that it plans an "aggressive" campaign against Republicans like Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (Ky.) for their opposition to reform plans.

"With so much at stake, it is not surprising that allies of the big banks and Wall Street lenders have already launched a multi-million-dollar ad campaign to fight these changes," President Barack Obama wrote in an e-mail to supporters on Friday. "Arm-twisting lobbyists are already storming Capitol Hill, seeking to undermine the strong bipartisan foundation of reform with loopholes and exemptions for the most egregious abusers of consumers."

But Boehner shot back on Friday, saying that Republican plans to reform mortgage lenders Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac would do more to protect consumers.

“Instead of permanent bailouts for President Obama’s Wall Street allies, Republicans believe the best way to protect taxpayers is by reforming Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, the government-sponsored companies that sparked the meltdown by giving high-risk loans to people who couldn’t afford it," he said.

Goldman Sachs charges a boost for White House - Eamon Javers - POLITICO.com

Trust me the reason that this suit was filed today was expressly to give Obama ammunition for his financial reform bill...Whether the suit has foundation or not is yet to be seen, but it's very possible that it will not prevail and was just positioned to again push an Obama bill through Congress....DO NOT PUT ANYTHING beyond this president and this administration. Where the action against Barney Frank....if you don't think he and his cohorts were behind this you are kidding yourself.

Goldman Sachs charges a boost for White House - Eamon Javers - POLITICO.com

Navy Restores Access to Fox News Web Site After Hours Offline

Not sure I believe that this blockage of FoxNews to Navy personnel was systematic...I know that sounds cynical, but with the ego at the top of this administration who knows what will happen....I think this is something that deserves a Congressional hearing to make certain it was not intentional.....after all it's about free speech.

FOXNews.com - Navy Restores Access to Fox News Web Site After Hours Offline

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Obama Mocks Tea Partiers: ‘You Would Think They’d Be Saying Thank You’

Another Example of how out of touch and arrogant Obama is....his few Democratic supporters may think he's funny, but the American Public DOESN'T!....We get to VOTE starting in November and he and his "comrades" will be out of office!

Breitbart.tv » Obama Mocks Tea Partiers: ‘You Would Think They’d Be Saying Thank You’

A tale of two Obamas: Up in D.C., down in U.S.

Interesting Article from Politico.....They Love him inside the Washington DC Beltway, but they HATE him throughout the country....that's good news for us in November and Bad news for Obama and the Democrats....Vote for a conservative Change starting in November of 2010....and we'll vote Obama out in November 2012...and Take Back America.

A tale of two Obamas: Up in D.C., down in U.S. - Mike Allen and James Hohmann - POLITICO.com

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Former NYC Mayor Koch: ‘No Doubt’ McCain Would Have Been Better Friend to Israel

I still don't understand why the Jews have not completely turned against Obama based on his dealings with Israel. But Koch is pretty much fed up with Obama despite his background as a Democrat!


Breitbart.tv » Former NYC Mayor Koch: ‘No Doubt’ McCain Would Have Been Better Friend to Israel

I'll tell you what's troublesome Mr Obama - YOU ARE TROUBLESOME!

The arrogance of Obama.....the apologizes for America....And this from a man that represents the GREATEST NATION IN THE WORLD! How did we get this idiot?...this certainly isn't the "change" America signed up for....we can start to change it this November by electing conservative republicans and throwing the socialist Democrats OUT!

Good short video below!


Breitbart.tv » Bow or Backhand: Obama’s America vs. World Attitude

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Financial Reform Is NOT GOOD!

Interesting article from the Heritage Foundation that makes the case that the Dodd Financial Reform Bill will do more harm than help....and it again gives far too much power to the Federal Government while extending Bailouts forever...


Wall Street Bailouts Forever

There is no person more central to Washington's bailouts of Wall Street than Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. As President of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, he oversaw the federal bailout of Bear Stearns in March 2008 and under former Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson, Getihner designed the original bailout plan for the American International Group (AIG) later that same year. As Treasury Secretary, Geithner has enthusiastically assumed full authority over the $700 billion TARP fund first secured by Paulson under President Bush and he had continued to wield it in the same haphazard manner as his predecessor.

Considering these facts, one might think that the Obama administration would be shy about making the personification of Washington's Wall Street bailouts the front man for their supposed financial reforms. But no, Secretary Geithner took to the op-ed pages of The Washington Post yesterday to make the case for the President's version of finance reform. After a brief defense of his TARP management, Secretary Geithner writes:

As the Senate bill moves to the floor, we must all fight loopholes that would weaken it and push to make sure the government has real authority to help end the problem of "too big to fail."
...
Crucially, if a major firm does mismanage itself into failure, the Senate bill gives the government the authority to wind down the firm with no exposure to the taxpayer. No more bailouts. Instead, we will have a bankruptcy-like regime where equityholders will be wiped out and the assets will be sold.

But does the Senate bill's "bankruptcy-like regime" solve the "too big to fail" problem? No. In fact it makes it worse. What the Dodd bill actually does is create a new $50 billion fund to be used in “emergencies” for restructuring firms deemed too close to bankruptcy. And who gets to decide when there is an emergency and which firms are too close to bankruptcy? You guessed it: Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. The Dodd bill is thus nothing but a permanent extension of Secretary Geithner’s TARP powers.

But not only does the Obama administration's finance plan further empower the exact same bureaucrats who failed to prevent the last crisis, it also makes it more likely that those same institutions that made risky bad bets before will make the exact same mistakes again. MIT professor and 13 Bankers: The Wall Street Takeover and the Next Financial Meltdown author Simon Johnson explains how promised government bailouts increase the moral hazard that leads to "too big to fail" policies: "Creditors had only limited incentives to watch over major banks. Ordinarily, creditors should demand high interest rates on loans to highly leveraged institutions. However, the expectation that large banks would not be allowed to fail made creditors more willing to lend to them." By establishing a permanent Geithner-controlled "emergency" fund, Wall Street creditors will know they never have to watch over their counterparts: if things go bad, their buddy Geithner will have their backs.

Responding to conservative arguments that their finance reform plan encourages, not discourages, future bailouts, White House blogger Jen Psaki wrote yesterday: "The reality is that there’s a clear choice in this debate: to stand with American families or stand on the side of the big Wall Street banks and their lobbyists who are defending the status quo." Problem is, it is "the big Wall Street banks" that are supporting the Geithner permanent bailout plan. In their annual letter, current Goldman Sach's CEO Lloyd Blankfein and President Gary Cohn make the case for more Washington regulation. And as The Washington Examiner's Tim Carney documents, Obama raised about a million dollars from Goldman Sachs employees and executives in 2008, the most any politician has raised from a single company since McCain-Feingold. And the Obama administration employs many Goldman alumni/lobbyists including Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, White House economic advisor Larry Summers, and Treasury Chief of Staff Mark Patterson. So who is really on the side of the American people and who really is doing the work of Wall Street lobbyists?

More Problems with Obamacare!

Doctor Owned Hospitals will NOT be able to add more rooms and more beds...These hospitals are MORE focused on the Patient/Doctor relationship...which means from the Government's perspective they are less controllable and control is what Obama wants!...as a result some 60 Doctor Hospitals nationwide that were in the planning stages have been Cancelled...And this is a Good Thing?...NOT

We can begin voting this socialist, big government regime out starting in November...and although we cannot repeal the Obamacare bill until early 2013 when we vote Barak out of office...we can stop funding the bill in 2011 when we get the House and Senate back in Conservative control.

CNSNews.com
Health Law Bans New Doctor-Owned Hospitals, Blocks Expansion of Existing Ones
Monday, April 12, 2010
By Fred Lucas, Staff Writer

(CNSNews.com) – The new health care overhaul law – that promised increased access and efficiency in health care – will prevent doctor-owned hospitals from adding more rooms and more beds.

These hospitals are advertised as less bureaucratic and more focused on doctor-patient decision making. However, larger corporate hospitals say doctor-owned facilities discriminate in favor of high-income patients and refer business to themselves.

The new rules single out physician-owned hospitals, making new physician-owned projects ineligible to receive payments for Medicare and Medicaid patients.

Existing doctor-owned hospitals will be grandfathered in to get government funds for patients but must seek permission from the Department of Health and Human Services to expand.

The get the department’s permission, a doctor-owned hospital must be in a county where population growth is 150 percent of the population growth of the state in the last five years; impatient admissions must be equal to all hospitals located in the county; the bed occupancy rate must not be greater than the state average, and it must be located in a state where hospital bed capacity is less than the national average.

These rules are under Title VI, Section 6001 of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act. The provision is titled “Physician Ownership and Other Transparency – Limitations on Medicare Exceptions to the Prohibition on Certain Physician Referral for Hospitals.”

More than 60 doctor-owned hospitals across the country that were in the development stage will be canceled, said Molly Sandvig, executive director of Physician Hospitals of America (PHA).

“That’s a lot of access to communities that will be denied,” Sandvig told CNSNews.com. “The existing hospitals are greatly affected. They can’t grow. They can’t add beds. They can’t add rooms. Basically, it stifles their ability to change and meet market needs. This is really an unfortunate thing as well, because we are talking about some of the best hospitals in the country.”

The organization says physician-owned hospitals have higher patient satisfaction, greater control over medical decisions for patients and doctor, better quality care and lower costs. Further, physician-owned hospitals have an average 4-1 patient-to-nurse ratio, compared to the national average of 8-1 for general hospitals.

Further, these 260 doctor-owned hospitals in 38 states provide 55,000 jobs, $2.4 billion in payroll and pay $509 million in federal taxes, according to the PHA.

In one ironic aspect, President Barack Obama’s two largest legislative achievements clashed. The Hammond Community Hospital in North Hammond, Ind., got $7 million in bond money from the federal stimulus act in 2009. It will likely be scrapped because of the new rules on physician-owned hospitals, according to the Post-Tribune newspaper in Merrillville, Ind.

These hospitals have long been a target of the American Hospital Association, which represents corporate-owned hospitals as well as non-profit hospitals.

An AHA study from 2008 says that physician-owned hospitals “lessen patient access to emergency and trauma case;” “damage the financial health of full-service hospitals and lead to cutbacks in service;” “are not more efficient than full service community hospitals;” “use physician-owners to steer patients;” “cherry pick the most profitable patients;” and “provide limited or no emergency services.”

Meanwhile, one AHA fact sheet asserts that physician-owned orthopedic and surgical hospitals costs are 20 percent to 30 percent higher than average hospitals. Further, these hospitals just lead to higher profits for doctors, the AHA asserts.

“We don’t cherry pick patients, period, end of story. We take patients based on their need for care, not on their ability to pay,” Sandvig said. “It [the health care reform] puts control outside the hand of physicians and patients and into bureaucrats’ hands really.

The Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) is one of many organizations suing to have the law declared unconstitutional on the grounds that the federal government cannot compel someone to buy a product.

While the provision on physician hospitals is not part of the lawsuit, it will affect it, Dr. said Jane Orient, AAPS executive director.

“If the law is declared unconstitutional, then the prohibition is part of the bill,” Orient told CNSNews.com. “There are vested interests in getting rid of physician-owned hospitals because they do a better job and are more affordable.”

The provision in the legislation and efforts opposing these hospitals can be simply explained from Sandvig’s view.

“It’s anti-competitive. I think it’s pretty clear,” Sandvig said. “We’re a model that makes sense that’s affecting innovation. We’re trying to do something better than it has been done. Anytime you do that, there’s going to be a clash between the existing and the new. Unfortunately, it’s a real David and Goliath battle.”

CNSNews.com

Arizona doctor says Obamacare will force him to close shop | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Here's another Doctor (this time in Arizona) that says Obamacare will force him to close his practice...Believe me this is more common that Americans think...He also talks about the rationing we can expect when this socialist bill goes into full effect...November is coming...we can Vote this Socialist Regime out of office! and there's still a chance we can get this repealed when we vote out Barak Obama in 2012!


Arizona doctor says Obamacare will force him to close shop | The Daily Caller - Breaking News, Opinion, Research, and Entertainment

Another Example of Obama's commitment to Tranparency and his Arrogance

This President DOES NOT believe in Transparency and certainly feels he can act anyway he wants....His Arrogance is Unbelievable!....His Nuclear Summit was a JOKE!....The elephants in the room, North Korea and Iran were no even discussed much less any decisions made on how to deal with their nuclear threats....November is coming and we've got to begin to change out this Administration!!!!

Obama's disregard for media reaches new heights at nuclear summit

By Dana Milbank
Wednesday, April 14, 2010; A02



World leaders arriving in Washington for President Obama's Nuclear Security Summit must have felt for a moment that they had instead been transported to Soviet-era Moscow.

They entered a capital that had become a military encampment, with camo-wearing military police in Humvees and enough Army vehicles to make it look like a May Day parade on New York Avenue, where a bicyclist was killed Monday by a National Guard truck.

In the middle of it all was Obama -- occupant of an office once informally known as "leader of the free world" -- putting on a clinic for some of the world's greatest dictators in how to circumvent a free press.

The only part of the summit, other than a post-meeting news conference, that was visible to the public was Obama's eight-minute opening statement, which ended with the words: "I'm going to ask that we take a few moments to allow the press to exit before our first session."

Reporters for foreign outlets, admitted for the first time to the White House press pool, got the impression that the vaunted American freedoms are not all they're cracked up to be.

Yasmeen Alamiri from the Saudi Press Agency got this lesson in press freedom when trying to cover Obama's opening remarks as part of that limited pool: "The foreign reporters/cameramen were escorted out in under two minutes, just as the leaders were about to begin, and Obama was going to make remarks. . . . Sorry, it is what it is."

Alamiri's counterparts from around the world wrote of similar experiences in their pool reports. Arabic-language MBC TV's Nadia Bilbassy had this to say of Obama's meeting with the Jordanian king: "We were there for around 30 seconds, not enough even to notice the color of tie of both presidents. I think blue for the king."

The Press Trust of India, at Obama's meeting with the Pakistani prime minister, reported, "In less than a minute, the pool was asked to leave." The Yomiuri Shimbun correspondent found that she was "ushered out about 30 seconds" after arriving for Obama's meeting with the Malaysian prime minister. A reporter with Turkey's TRT-Turk went to Obama's meeting with the president of Armenia, but "we had to leave the room again after less than 40 seconds."

Even the Chinese president, Hu Jintao, was more talkative with the press than Obama. Michelle Jamrisko, with Japan's Kyodo News, noted in her pool report that Hu, at his session with Obama, spoke to the Chinese media in Chinese, while Obama limited himself mostly to "say hello to the cameras" and "thank you everybody."

Obama's official schedule for Tuesday would have pleased China's Central Committee. Excerpts: "The President will attend the Heads of Delegation working lunch. This lunch is closed press. . . . The President will meet with Prime Minster Erdogan of Turkey. This meeting is closed press. . . . The President will attend Plenary Session II of the Nuclear Security Summit. This session is closed press."

Reporters, even those on the White House beat for two decades, said these were the most restricted such meetings they had ever seen. They complained to both the administration and White House Correspondents' Association, which will discuss the matter Thursday with White House press secretary Robert Gibbs.

The restrictions have become a common practice for the Obama White House. When Israeli Prime Minister Binyamin Netanyahu came to the White House a couple of weeks ago, reporters were kept away. Soon after that, Obama signed an executive order on abortion, again without any coverage.

Over the weekend, Obama broke with years of protocol and slipped off to a soccer game without the "protective" pool that is always in the vicinity of the president in case the unthinkable occurs. Obama joked about it later to Pakistan's prime minister, saying reporters "were very upset."

In "bilateral" meetings with foreign leaders, presidents usually take questions, or at least trade statements. But at most of Obama's, there were only written "readouts." Canada: "The president and the prime minister noted the enduring strength of our bilateral partnership." India: "The two leaders vowed to continue to strengthen the robust relationship between the people of their countries." Pakistan: "President Obama began by noting that he is very fond of Pakistan."

Finally, away from other leaders, Obama took reporters' questions for 20 minutes. They were tough and skeptical questions that punctured the banal readouts: pointing out that the nonproliferation agreements weren't binding, noting China's equivocation on sanctions against Iran, and pressing Obama on the failure to curb North Korea's weapons. The Post's Scott Wilson asked Obama if he would call on Israel, which skipped the summit, to declare its nuclear weapons.

"I'm not going to comment on their program," Obama said.

Not surprising. But it's still important that the questions are asked.

Tuesday, April 13, 2010

Trust Me ....Andy Stern may be retiring from SEIU,but he will show up in the Obama Administration

It may be rumored and may be fact that Andy Stern is retiring from the SEIU, but mark my words...watch out for where he will surface in the Obama socialist Administration....

Morning Bell: Andy Stern’s America | The Foundry: Conservative Policy News.

Monday, April 12, 2010

The Dangerous Indoctrination of our Kids

AFL CIO Secretary/Treasurer says...Let's Teach Social Justice to Middle Schoolers - But Don't Tell Glen Beck!

A Short Video that clearly illustrated that the Socialized Left as represented by the Labor Unions wants to indoctrinate our kids in socialist/marxist ways....That's a scary thing and certainly falls right in with Obama's Agenda. Pretty soon this will look more like Russia than the US IF we don't get control back. Take a look....It's worth it!

Breitbart.tv » Unions: Let’s Teach Social Justice to Middle Schoolers — But Don’t Tell Glenn Beck

Another Example of Having Inexperience in the White House...

FROM Today's Heritage Foudation....points out the big difference from Obama's approach to national security/nuclear threats and Reagans...and also shows what problems having and inexperienced, academic, liberal in the White House....no wonder why the Russians like Obama and Isreal doesn't.


Obama is No Reagan on Nuclear Strategy

Leaders from 46 nations, the most gathered together since the United Nations was formed in San Francisco in 1945, will meet over the next two days in Washington, DC. The stated goal of this Obama administration-hosted summit is laudable: keeping nuclear weapons out of terrorist hands. Who could argue with that? And this Nuclear Security Summit comes less than a week after President Barack Obama released a Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) and just days after he signed a New Strategic Arms Reduction Treaty with Russian President Dmitri Medvedev. As many of the White House's allies pointed out last week, President Ronald Reagan wanted a world without nuclear weapons, and he also signed an arms treaty with the Soviet Union. President Obama's policy goals are just like President Reagan's. So why is anyone criticizing the White House's nuclear strategy? Because how we get to a nuke-free world matters.

Reagan knew that to eliminate the need for large nuclear arsenals, you must first start to eliminate the dependence -- both ours and others' -- on massive nuclear attack as the guarantor of security. That is why Reagan's first priority was to build up U.S. conventional forces and introduce missile defense. That allowed his negotiators to approach arms control agreements from a position of strength.

President Obama has done the exact opposite. He has cut our national defense, including acquisition of the F-22, removed missile defense installations in Eastern Europe, and cut missile defense development programs. His lawyer-like NPR weakens America's deterrence credibility by broadcasting our intention not to respond in kind if we are hit by weapons of mass destruction. And his New START agreement not only clearly links our missile defense shield with Russian missile reduction, but it also limits our own conventional weapons capabilities as well.

Reagan also understood how other nations viewed their own nuclear programs and recognized the limits of unilateral arms reductions. President Obama clearly does not. Russia’s nuclear and conventional weapons arsenals are declining faster than ours, due to age and funding, so of course they want to bring our levels down to theirs. New START plays right into the Kremlin's needs by constraining our advantage in conventional (non-nuclear) “strategic” weapons, including missile defense, in order to accentuate the power of their nuclear arsenal. Meanwhile, the current Iranian regime views their nuclear program as essential to their domestic survival, so the increasingly worthless sanctions the Obama administration is trying to get out of the United Nations Security Council will do nothing to slow the Iranian bomb either. And Obama’s call for eliminating nuclear weapons even provides North Korea with some political cover for maintaining its stockpile. In September 2009, Pyongyang declared that “denuclearization of the Korean Peninsula [will be] in the context of a global effort to build a world free of nuclear weapons.” North Korea now ties its denuclearization to worldwide U.S. disarmament.

Heritage fellow James Carafano concludes:

Reagan's sound vision for "rendering nuclear weapons obsolete" started with first ensuring robust defenses, then reducing the nuclear stockpile appropriately. Obama has taken a "reduce first, beef up defense later (if ever)" approach.

It's a path that leads to even greater danger, not to "zero." Doubtless President Obama is motivated by the very best of intentions. But in a world of proliferating nuclear power, we should remember where a road paved only with good intentions leads.

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Great Intro Video for Haley Barbour's speech at the SRLC

This short video does a good job putting into perspective what a devestating impact Obama and Liberal Democrats have had on American in just a short time...November is coming and it's our turn to vote...our turn to take back American and begin to get our freedoms back!....


*Finalized* SRLC, New Orleans from Republican Governors Association on Vimeo.

Friday, April 9, 2010

Newt Gingrich at the SRLC lays down the Challenge

Good Gingrich clip from the SRLC.

Breitbart.tv » Gingrich: Obama Is ‘Most Radical President Ever’

More Evidence that there's a Big Conservative Move in America

New Gallup Poll proves that there's a huge conservative move in America....We need to keep all the conservatives together...both conservative Republicans AND Tea Party folks....One party/effort wins....Two loses.


Gallup: Dems at a new low
By ALEXANDER BURNS | 4/9/10 7:03 AM EDT

The Democratic Party's favorability rating has dropped to the "lowest point in the 18-year history" of Gallup testing that number, the pollster reports. Just 41 percent of voters have a favorable impression of the Democratic Party, compared with 42 percent who have a positive view of the GOP. Democrats held an 11-point lead on this question when Gallup polled it late last summer.

Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play

Bart Stupak, the traitor from Michigan that tipped the scales on socialist Obamacare is retiring!....That puts this House seat in play for the Republicans/Tea Party team for November. November's vote becomes more important by the day....Stupak won't be the last...more seats will open up between now and November....Stay engaged!


Rep. Bart Stupak to retire, putting seat in play - Mike Allen and Josh Kraushaar - POLITICO.com

Thursday, April 8, 2010

47% of Americans pay no Federal Income Tax - That's gotta change!

If this isn't and argument of Federal Tax changes than nothing is....almost 1/2 of our nation does NOT pay federal income tax....and it is precisely that 1/2 of the population that uses most of the government provided services....It's time to revise the tax laws so every American pays something....not 50%, but something!....Obama has turned filing tax returns into a profit center for some Americans and that's wrong. It's time for a REAL CHANGE and we can begin to make that happen this November by voting out all liberals, socialists and democrats from the House and Senate.


Stephen Ohlemacher, Associated Press Writer, On Wednesday April 7, 2010, 5:38 pm EDT
WASHINGTON (AP) -- Tax Day is a dreaded deadline for millions, but for nearly half of U.S. households it's simply somebody else's problem.

About 47 percent will pay no federal income taxes at all for 2009. Either their incomes were too low, or they qualified for enough credits, deductions and exemptions to eliminate their liability. That's according to projections by the Tax Policy Center, a Washington research organization.

Most people still are required to file returns by the April 15 deadline. The penalty for skipping it is limited to the amount of taxes owed, but it's still almost always better to file: That's the only way to get a refund of all the income taxes withheld by employers.

In recent years, credits for low- and middle-income families have grown so much that a family of four making as much as $50,000 will owe no federal income tax for 2009, as long as there are two children younger than 17, according to a separate analysis by the consulting firm Deloitte Tax.

Tax cuts enacted in the past decade have been generous to wealthy taxpayers, too, making them a target for President Barack Obama and Democrats in Congress. Less noticed were tax cuts for low- and middle-income families, which were expanded when Obama signed the massive economic recovery package last year.

The result is a tax system that exempts almost half the country from paying for programs that benefit everyone, including national defense, public safety, infrastructure and education. It is a system in which the top 10 percent of earners -- households making an average of $366,400 in 2006 -- paid about 73 percent of the income taxes collected by the federal government.

The bottom 40 percent, on average, make a profit from the federal income tax, meaning they get more money in tax credits than they would otherwise owe in taxes. For those people, the government sends them a payment.

"We have 50 percent of people who are getting something for nothing," said Curtis Dubay, senior tax policy analyst at the Heritage Foundation.

The vast majority of people who escape federal income taxes still pay other taxes, including federal payroll taxes that fund Social Security and Medicare, and excise taxes on gasoline, aviation, alcohol and cigarettes. Many also pay state or local taxes on sales, income and property.

That helps explain the country's aversion to taxes, said Clint Stretch, a tax policy expert Deloitte Tax. He said many people simply look at the difference between their gross pay and their take-home pay and blame the government for the disparity.

"It's not uncommon for people to think that their Social Security taxes, their 401(k) contributions, their share of employer health premiums, all of that stuff in their mind gets lumped into income taxes," Stretch said.

The federal income tax is the government's largest source of revenue, raising more than $900 billion -- or a little less than half of all government receipts -- in the budget year that ended last Sept. 30. But with deductions and credits, especially for families with children, there have long been people who don't pay it, mainly lower-income families.

The number of households that don't pay federal income taxes increased substantially in 2008, when the poor economy reduced incomes and Congress cut taxes in an attempt to help recovery.

In 2007, about 38 percent of households paid no federal income tax, a figure that jumped to 49 percent in 2008, according to estimates by the Tax Policy Center.

In 2008, President George W. Bush signed a law providing most families with rebate checks of $300 to $1,200. Last year, Obama signed the economic recovery law that expanded some tax credits and created others. Most targeted low- and middle-income families.

Obama's Making Work Pay credit provides as much as $800 to couples and $400 to individuals. The expanded child tax credit provides $1,000 for each child under 17. The Earned Income Tax Credit provides up to $5,657 to low-income families with at least three children.

There are also tax credits for college expenses, buying a new home and upgrading an existing home with energy-efficient doors, windows, furnaces and other appliances. Many of the credits are refundable, meaning if the credits exceed the amount of income taxes owed, the taxpayer gets a payment from the government for the difference.

"All these things are ways the government says, if you do this, we'll reduce your tax bill by some amount," said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at the Tax Policy Center.

The government could provide the same benefits through spending programs, with the same effect on the federal budget, Williams said. But it sounds better for politicians to say they cut taxes rather than they started a new spending program, he added.

Obama has pushed tax cuts for low- and middle-income families and tax increases for the wealthy, arguing that wealthier taxpayers fared well in the past decade, so it's time to pay up. The nation's wealthiest taxpayers did get big tax breaks under Bush, with the top marginal tax rate reduced from 39.6 percent to 35 percent, and the second-highest rate reduced from 36 percent to 33 percent.

But income tax rates were lowered at every income level. The changes made it relatively easy for families of four making $50,000 to eliminate their income tax liability.

Here's how they did it, according to Deloitte Tax:

The family was entitled to a standard deduction of $11,400 and four personal exemptions of $3,650 apiece, leaving a taxable income of $24,000. The federal income tax on $24,000 is $2,769.

With two children younger than 17, the family qualified for two $1,000 child tax credits. Its Making Work Pay credit was $800 because the parents were married filing jointly.

The $2,800 in credits exceeds the $2,769 in taxes, so the family makes a $31 profit from the federal income tax. That ought to take the sting out of April 15.

Fox News Poll: Health Care and the Midterm Elections

There's a groundswell of disapproval for Obama and the Democratic Congress....November is coming!




FOXNews.com - Fox News Poll: Health Care and the Midterm Elections

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From a Great Leader - Lee Iacocca

Lee Sums it up Pretty Well....Vote out this liberal/socialist/corrupt Congress and President....and light a fire in America!



Just as true today as it was when his book first came out.
He was, and still is, a brilliant businessman!
Often we need to be reminded of Iacocca's words.



Remember Lee Iacocca, the man who rescued Chrysler Corporation from its death throes? He's now 82 years old and has a new book, 'Where Have All The Leaders Gone?'.

Lee Iacocca Says:

'Am I the only guy in this country who's fed up with what's happening? Where the hell is our outrage with this so called president? We should be screaming bloody murder! We've got a gang of tax cheating clueless leftists trying to steer our ship of state right over a cliff, we've got corporate gangsters stealing us blind, and we can't even run a ridiculous cash-for-clunkers program without losing $26 billion of the taxpayers' money, much less build a hybrid car. But instead of getting mad, everyone sits around and nods their heads when the politicians say, 'trust me the economy is getting better..'

Better? You've got to be kidding. This is America , not the damned, 'Titanic'. I'll give you a sound bite: 'Throw all the Democrats out along with Obama!'

You might think I'm getting senile, that I've gone off my rocker, and maybe I have. But someone has to speak up. I hardly recognize this country anymore..

The most famous business leaders are not the innovators but the guys in handcuffs.. While we're fiddling in Afghanistan , Iran is completing their nuclear bombs and missiles and nobody seems to know what to do. And the liberal press is waving 'pom-poms' instead of asking hard questions. That's not the promise of the ' America' my parents and yours traveled across the ocean for. I've had enough. How about you?

I'll go a step further. You can't call yourself a patriot if you're not outraged. This is a fight I'm ready and willing to have. The Biggest 'C' is Crisis! (Iacocca elaborates on nine C's of leadership, with crisis being the first.)

Leaders are made, not born. Leadership is forged in times of crisis. It's easy to sit there with thumb up your butt and talk theory. Or send someone else's kids off to war when you've never seen a battlefield yourself. It's another thing to lead when your world comes tumbling down.

On September 11, 2001, we needed a strong leader more than any other time in our history. We needed a steady hand to guide us out of the ashes. A hell of a mess, so here's where we stand.

We're immersed in a bloody war now with no plan for winning and no plan for leaving. But our soldiers are dying daily.

We're running the biggest deficit in the history of the world, and it's getting worse every day!

We've lost the manufacturing edge to Asia , while our once-great companies are getting slaughtered by health care costs.

Gas prices are going to skyrock again, and nobody in power has a lucid plan to open drilling to solve the problem. This country has the largest oil reserves in the WORLD, and we cannot drill for it because the politicians have been bought by the flea-hugging environmentalists.


Our schools are in a complete disaster because of the teachers union.

Our borders are like sieves and they want to give all illegals amnesty and free healthcare.

The middle class is being squeezed to death every day.

These are times that cry out for leadership.

But when you look around, you've got to ask: 'Where have all the leaders gone?' Where are the curious, creative communicators? Where are the people of character, courage, conviction, omnipotence, and common sense? I may be a sucker for alliteration, but I think you get the point.

Name me a leader who has a better idea for homeland security than making us take off our shoes in airports and throw away our shampoo?

We've spent billions of dollars building a huge new bureaucracy, and all we know how to do is react to things that have already happened.

Everyone's hunkering down, fingers crossed, hoping the government will make it better for them. Now, that's just crazy.. Deal with life.



Name me an industry leader who is thinking creatively about how we can restore our competitive edge in manufacturing. Who would have believed that there could ever be a time when 'The Big Three' referred to Japanese car companies? How did this happen, and more important, look what Obama did about it!


Name me a government leader who can articulate a plan for paying down the debit, or solving theenergy crisis, or managing the health care problem. The silence is deafening. But these are the crises that are eating away at our country and milking the middle class dry.

I have news for the Chicago gangsters in Congress. We didn't elect you to turn this country into a losing European Socialist state. What is everybody so afraid of? That some bonehead on NBC or CNN news will call them a name? Give me a break. Why don't you guys show some spine for a change?

Had Enough? Hey, I'm not trying to be the voice of gloom and doom here. I'm trying to light a fire. I'm speaking out because I have hope - I believe in America. In my lifetime, I've had the privilege of living through some of America's greatest moments. I've also experienced some of our worst crises: The 'Great Depression,' 'World War II,' the 'Korean War,' the 'Kennedy Assassination,' the 'Vietnam War,' the 1970's oil crisis, and the struggles of recent years since 9/11.

Make your own contribution by sending this to everyone you know and care about. It's our country, folks, and it's our future. Our future is at stake!!


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Don't you feel "safer" Now???? An inexperienced Rookie in the White House

From today's Heritage Foundation....Bet you feel safer now???? NOT!....He's got to be a One Term President ONLY...and we've to get Conservative, Common Sense Control back in Congress Starting in November 2010.


Obama's False START

Just hours before President Barack Obama unveiled his Nuclear Posture Review (NPR) on Tuesday, Russian Foreign Minister Sergei Lavrov told reporters in Moscow that the Kremlin maintained the right to withdraw from the new START agreement if the United States pursued its missile defense program. Late last night, the White House responded to Lavrov's statement, insisting: "The Russian statement does no more than give the United States fair notice that it may decide to pull out of the New START Treaty if Russia believes our missile defense system affects strategic stability. We believe it doesn’t."

But the Russians could care less what the Obama administration believes about missile defense. The Russians have made it exceedingly clear that Kremlin compliance with the treaty will evaporate at any point when Moscow decides our missile defense program threatens them. And the Russians have already said repeatedly that they believe it does. There is a good reason that neither Russian President Dmitri Medvedev nor Prime Minister Vladimir Putin have uttered a word about the treaty in public. As New York University professor of Russian Studies and History Stephen Cohen told MSNBC just seconds after Presidents Obama and Medvedev signed the agreement: "Politically it is an unstable treaty." Why should the U.S. Senate ratify a treaty that Russia maintains it can exit at any time?

President Obama's New START has other problems as well. The Russians have a long and well documented history of violating arms control agreements. By focusing intently on numerical arms reduction, it is unclear what ground Obama gave up on verification. There is also legitimate concern that the President has not yet met requirements under U.S. law (sec 1251 of the 2009 Defense Authorization Act) to adequately address the modernization of U.S. nuclear weapons and infrastructure before entering into a new arms control agreement. But President Obama's NPR promises not to develop any new nuclear weapons. That's an odd promise since Russia, China, India, Pakistan, Iran and North Korea are all doing so.

Taken together, New Start, the NPR and next week's Nuclear Security Summit all raise significant questions about the soundness of the administration’s nuclear strategy. The President has made it clear that he sees the Nuclear Nonproliferation Treaty as the core of U.S. nuclear policy. But maintaining an effective nuclear force that protects the United States and its allies and combating proliferation and nuclear terrorism are not incompatible, as the President’s strategy suggests. The last administration made significant strides in countering proliferation, including establishing the Proliferation Security Initiative.

It is President Obama's nuclear strategy that is contradictory. By having a smaller, less reliable, less credible nuclear force, the President’s strategy will increase the incentive for nuclear proliferators and the reliance of other states on nuclear weapons — the world will become a more, not less dangerous place. As The Wall Street Journal reminds us today: "To the extent that more states haven't gone nuclear, the reason has been U.S. power, not a treaty. Japan, Taiwan, South Korea and Canada could build a bomb in a week, but instead they have long relied on America's nuclear umbrella to deter aggressors. A credible U.S. nuclear deterrent is the world's greatest antiproliferation weapon."

The right U.S. defense strategy would emphasize a modernized, credible nuclear force; comprehensive missile defense; and robust conventional forces, as well as vigorous efforts to prevent proliferation, illicit trafficking in nuclear technology and materials; and combating terrorism. This will provide for a more robust and effective deterrence for the post-Cold War World.