January 22, 2010

Bloomberg Hammers Obama, Congress Over Bank Plan

President Barack Obama’s demand Thursday that Congress clamp down on the size of banks and their investments got major blowback from New York City Mayor Michael Bloomberg, who said it could cause layoffs and hurt the city.

It’s a clash between the president and the mayor. President Obama wants to whittle away at the size of the financial services industry. …

The mayor was so upset about the move — and a suggestion that Wall Street bonuses be put in escrow, which means the money wouldn’t be spent here, wouldn’t help the city economy — he responded with a proposal of his own for members of Congress.

“Maybe we should hold back their salaries for a decade or so and see whether the laws they pass work out,” Bloomberg said.

Did anyone notice what the AP did there? They are paraphrasing Obama, but check out what they say.

If the US had not failed to understand basic reality, then Obama would not have raised expectations so high.

This is not an error of judgment of “the US.” “The US” did not fail to anticipate this. “The US,” in fact, isn’t really a sentient being capable of anticipating anything at all, but to the extent we collectively think stuff, we collectively have long doubted that the Palestinians would ever make peace. Or at least we’ve been highly skeptical of any progress towards real peace there.

And yet the AP neatly, in an almost nonsensical sentence, pushes off the fault for this to “the US.”

Obama didn’t make any errors. Obama can’t make any errors.

What happened here was that “the US” made a huge error, and Obama just raised expectations based on “the US’” defect in thinking.

But is Obama to blame?

Of course not.

You are, champ.

Obama’s like Reverse Jesus. You will, collectively, assume his sins so that he is cleansed and untainted.*

* Yes, I know there’s another word for “Reverse Jesus.”

“The only thing I’ve said and I’ll continue to say is I’m honored to be considered,” Kudlow told The Daily Caller. “I’m really flattered.”

McCain-Feingold, R.I.P.:

Ha, ha!

Finally the justices understand that “no law” means no law under the First Amendment. They gutted McCain-Feingold.

You have the right to campaign against the members of Congress.

You have the right to buy an ad and say the president — be he a Bush or an Obama — is an egg-sucking dog.

And Congress cannot do a thing to stop you.

Sheesh.

It took this long to figure this out?

Here’s the thing that Democrats just learned in Massachusetts: the base can’t save you. In the bluest of blue states, if you run with a progressive agenda and alienate moderates, those alienated moderates will join with the conservatives to kick you out of office. Catering to the base is a losing strategy.

It’s all very well to say that they should man up and pass it anyway. This is the sort of thing that sounds very well from the comfort of your living room. But are you prepared to pledge that if health care reform passes, you’ll resign your job? Because that’s essentially what you’re asking them to do.

It just wrapped up so I’m testing the better late than never theory but it was…awful. The speech was disjointed, flat in a lot of spots and just, well, a mess. If this Obama ran in 08 McCain (or Hillary) would have beaten him. Easily.

At one point Obama said, “here in Michigan” alas it was in Ohio. No problem though, it’s not like those two states are rivals or anything.

Then it got really bad.
[...]
I was Twittering (Tweating?) during it and at one point my feeling was that if this were a fight, the Ref would have stopped it. It went on so long and was so rambling that the props people in the background looked they wanted to make a break for it. One guy pulled out a Blackberry and started checking email or something.

In some ways this was like therapy session for Obama. He seems absolutely overwhelmed by the job and the fact that his Awesomeness simply hasn’t translated to this job.

The State of the Union on Wednesday is going to be very interesting.

images:
http://www.youngcarers.net.au
threekidcircus.com
licklemisschatterbox.blogspot.com
bobballs.wordpress.com

A reminder from the most transparent president ever.

The money quote at around the :50 mark: “I’m Going To Take Some Of Your Questions But First The Cameras Have To Go So You Can Tell Me The Truth”.

Obama is paid with public tax money. The mayors are all paid with public tax money. They held their meeting, it’s presumed, in a public place.

But the public can get the hell out so we can tell the truth?!?

Sounds about right for Captain Wonderful and his amazing Zero Death Ray-like political mind. He treats his transparency promises like it was a big joke–on the American people.

Just like his presidency.

He’s got three more years to pass Jimmy Carter as the Worst President of my lifetime.

h/t: Weasel Zippers: Obama To Mayors: I’m Going To Take Some Of Your Questions But First The Cameras Have To Go So You Can Tell Me The Truth
image: Scottystarns

[at left: Ed Schultz answers the question, "How many times would you use that hand to vote against Scott Brown?"]

It’d be easy to speculate, “Did MSNBC’s Ed Schultz just let the cat out of the bag?”

But, with ACORN’s voter fraud and years of dead people voting, that bag’s long ago been rendered useless as a cat-holding device.

via Honest Democrat Ed Schultz Says ‘I’d Cheat’ To Keep Scott Brown From Winning… who got it via Brietbart TV

DO IT YOURSELF SCOTT BROWN POSTERS

Live in Massachusetts and want to show your support for Scott Brown in his battle to be the 41st vote to stop ObamaCare?

Even if you don’t live in Massachusetts and you just want to print out some Scott Brown posters or stickers to join in the fun and excitement, here’s a handy site for that.

Now you can print out your own Scott Brown posters and stickers on your home printer.

Free Sign Artwork.com

Click the image you want, wait for it to load and then print it out for any of 101 campaign uses.

Voila!

ALSO: posters for 9-12, SC, Kansas, and Proud Member of the Angry Mob. DIY lives! At this stage in the political process, we almost classified this under “survival tips”.

TWO VIDEOS to INSPIRE

A video two-fer.

From the makers of the above video, Minnesota Majority:

On January 19, 2010, a special election will be held in Massachusetts to select a new US Senator. Mainstream media pundits would have you believe Democrat Maratha Coakley is the undisputed leader …
On January 19, 2010, a special election will be held in Massachusetts to select a new US Senator. Mainstream media pundits would have you believe Democrat Maratha Coakley is the undisputed leader in the race. But the so-called ‘experts’ may be in for a bit of a surprise.

Freedom-loving Americans from across our nation are rising-up to support Republican candidate Scott Brown. In the days leading up to the election, Brown has advanced such that some polls now actually show him within the margin of error.

Brown would provide the critical 41st vote in the Senate to break the Democrat’s filibuster-proof majority and stop the unprecedented assault on our personal liberties that is now taking place in Congress.

Scott Brown has pledged to vote against the government takeover of our health care system and is also opposed to cap-and-trade.

Martha Coakley, on the other hand, supports Obama’s socialistic agenda.

The political elite should not underestimate the resilience of the American people to defend their liberty from a tyrannical government.

The video below is much better-known, have garnered over 650,000 hits on YouTube.

AMERICA RISING:
An Open Letter to Democrat Politicians

CORRECTION: The above video is by gizgreen. Gotta give credit where credit’s due!

Who, on the Republican side will step up to put love of country ahead of scorn by a corrupted Senate and and even more corrupted media?

One sure way to get bypassed for a Washington Post or New York Times Style section profile would be to try and pull a Mr. Smith-style stunt.

Who will be 2010’s Mr. Smith? Will there even be one?

AmSpec’s Quin Hilyer has it exactly right in Thermopylae for Health Care.

Voters don’t want promises to repeal. They want to strangle this puppy before it’s born.

What infuriates conservatives is the attitudinal signals the Senate leadership sends. The health care bill is treated as just another piece of legislation — certainly more important than most, as Atlanta was a more important city than most, but not ground to be defended by every available means, to the death, as if a civilization hangs in the balance the way Greek civilization was threatened by the Persians. Yet for millions upon many tens of millions of Americans, the health-care battle is indeed their generation’s domestic version of the Greco-Persian War, and nothing less than a Thermopylae-like stand will be acceptable. These middle-Americans don’t want amendments to the bills. They don’t want to force bill supporters into tough votes that will be used against them in the 2010 fall campaigns. They don’t care about positioning for future battles on other legislative subjects, and they don’t give a flying expletive about maintaining the alleged dignity of the Senate.

What they want is to beat Obamacare: They want to ward off this abomination, this vicious assault on the Constitution and on the free market, this affront to individual liberty in a realm that is intensely and profoundly personal. They want to defeat it, trip it up, smother it, by any and all means within the law. They hate Obamacare. They see a government that already has taken over banks and financial companies and car companies, a government blob that wants to limit the very air we exhale, and they see it now trying to suck in one-sixth of the whole economy in one massive power grab.

This may well be the single instance where conservatives are in favor of abortion: a health care bill abortion.

This monstrosity is too big, too dangerous, too freedom-destroying to be allowed life. Republicans should be doing everything–EVERYTHING–to stop its implementation.

Let’s see some damn scorched earth, people!

Procedurally, also, McConnell could do far more. He could tell Majority Leader Harry Reid that he will tie the Senate in knots for the entire year unless Reid backs down. No unanimous consents all year. Holds on every nominee. Every single one. Forced readings of every word of every bill and every amendment, all year.

Is there not one Republican who yearns to be Mr. Smith, saving his country from this cesspool-of-corruption-POS legislation?

In Frank Capra’s Mr. Smith Goes to Washington, Jimmy Stewart played Mr. Smith, a simple man who put love of country, freedom and the American way ahead of corrupt, backroom dealings in the Senate.

Is there not one Senator who prizes stopping this affront to the American people over backroom corruption masquerading as Senate dignity?

America would cheer.

And never forget.

images: Bill Movie Emporium

Rasmussen has a couple tidbits for a Sunday.

The president’s approval rating is -15 and almost one in three respondents think the Indianapolis Colts are going to win the Super Bowl.

From 29% Expect Colts to Win Super Bowl

Prior to this weekend, there were two undefeated teams in the NFL, and most football fans expected that one of them would emerge as the Super Bowl champion at the end of the season.

The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of football fans finds that 29% expect the Indianapolis Colts to win it all while 26% say the New Orleans Saints will win their first title. But that was before the Saints lost 24-17 to the Dallas Cowboys on Saturday night.

While the Colts and Saints are the favorites, 14% think the Brett Favre and the Minnesota Vikings will win the title. Earlier this season, 17% picked the Vikings to win it all. At the time, that was enough to make them the favorites. In that October survey, 12% thought the Saints would win and 9% picked the Colts.

The president’s daily tracking numbers: Daily Presidential Tracking Poll.

The Rasmussen Reports daily Presidential Tracking Poll for Sunday shows that 26% of the nation’s voters Strongly Approve of the way that Barack Obama is performing his role as President. Forty-one percent (41%) Strongly Disapprove giving Obama a Presidential Approval Index rating of -15.

Undoubtedly, the White House is busy telling Obama sweet little lies that -15 will invert itself by the next election.

ONE QUESTION: How long before those numbers start looking good? How long before the daily approval hits -20?

ONE GUESS: After a possible health care bill passes. There will be no bounce: true-believing lefties hate it, independents hate it, libertarians hate it and of course, conservatives hate it.

Where would any bounce come from? Joe Biden and Dick Durbin only have one vote. Well, Durbin’s from Illinois, so he might have more than one.

Beware of Democrat Senators bearing amendments to bills that threaten free speech.

Or in this case: that don’t protect the very foot soldiers of citizen-journalists.

FROM Democrats: Criminalizing Dissent:

Democrats Diane Feinstein and Dick “Turban” Durbin – who have long been the Dems’ official trial-balloon-floaters for assaults on free speech like the “Fairness Doctrine” – are proposing an amendment to a Senate bill (S.448) clarifying the press shield law.

And it’s aimed squarely at citizen journalists like you and I. Via RWN, here’s the amendment text, with some emphases added:

The amendment to the press “shield law” is then presented. It seems to cover anyone explicitly working for a news business–but not citizen-journalists.

Here’s the lawyerspeak of the amendment:

In section 10(2)(A), strike clause (iii) and insert the following:

[a "journalist" is shielded if he/she] (iii) obtains the information sought while working as a salaried employee of, or independent contractor for, an entity—

(I) that disseminates information by print, broadcast, cable, satellite, mechanical, photographic, electronic, 1or other means; and

(II) that—

(aa) publishes a newspaper, book, magazine, or other periodical;

(bb) operates a radio or television broadcast station, network, cable system, or satellite carrier, or a channel or programming service for any such station, network, system, or carrier;

(cc) operates a programming service; or

(dd) operates a news agency or wire service;

It doesn’t seem like it would have covered those two crazy kids so beloved by ACORN for their child prostitute stings, Jame O’Keefe and Hannah Giles.

Why does it matter that, in order to fall under the amendment’s protection, you have to be employed by a news business?

The left, on the other hand, has built up a network of “business” entities and non-profits, from the pseudo-newspaper-y “MNPost” to the not-very-covert propagandists at the “Center for Independent Media” (parent of the Minnesoros “Independent”), at exquisite cost; one might now presume that this money was spent to get ahead of the legislative curve that the Feinstein/Durbin proposal represents, as a further attempt to shut down independent, non-government-vetted thought in this country.

This is Obama’s America.

Indeed.

And to Feinstein and Durbin goes the coveted “Progressive Tool” award.

NOTE: Maybe I’ve got this all wrong. Am I missing anything? It’s tough to listen to the many “proposals” and “conferences” being held lately to regulate and “keep the Internet” safe and not see this as part of it all.

After some thought, the original verdict stands: Feinstein and Durbin are Tools of the Oppressor. Never thought I’d be using that phrase without my tongue in my cheek.

The Internet is one place that politicians currently do not control. As such, it represents a threat to their power. Therefore, the push over the last several months to regulate it and those who use the Internet to disseminate their writing.

[To see entire piece, Democrats: Criminalizing Dissent]

Democrats love taxes and the greatest stealth tax of them all is the Value Added Tax: the VAT. According to Newsmax, it’s buried deep in the Senate version of ObamaCare.

From Value Added Tax Hidden in Health Reform:

The Senate bill’s “fee” on medical devices operates much like a VAT, and could end up being the model for future adoption of an unprecedented VAT on all goods and services in the United States.

Deep into the 2,074-page bill, on page 2,020, is “SEC. 9009,” the “Imposition of Annual Fee on Medical Device Manufacturers and Importers.” It orders that “Each covered entity engaged in the business of manufacturing or importing medical devices shall pay to the [Treasury] Secretary not later than the annual payment date of each calendar year beginning after 2009 a fee in an amount determined under subsection (b).”

The amount of tax would be based on “gross receipts from medical device sales.” Treasury bureaucrats would have the formidable power of “identification of medical devices” and the new tax would be retroactive, applying to “any medical device sales after December 31, 2008.”

The VAT is an insidious tax, extracting wealth from private companies and individuals each step of the production and marketing process of a product. It’s one of the primary reasons why Europe is essentially non-competitive in most industries.

The European VATs suck money from private enterprises into the gaping maw of inefficient governments–and does it in such a way that is hidden to the consumer.

That the Democrats would attempt to use the health care bill to set up the framework for such an odious tax is instructive. Hopefully, voters will remember the lesson come Election Day 2010.

CAN YOU SAY “CONFLICT OF INTEREST”?

Undoubtedly overlooked in House Speaker Nancy Pelosi’s 2006 vow to “drain the swamp” of House corruption is Alan Mollohan’s conflict of interest.

Both the Washington Post (Justice probing lawmaker with oversight over department) and TPM Muckraker (Dem Rep Controls DOJ Budget While Under DOJ Investigation) noticed.

From WashPo: “For three years, Rep. Alan Mollohan has chaired the important Appropriations subcommittee that controls the Justice Department’s $65 billion budget. At the same time, he has been under a Justice Department investigation, according to documents and two sources briefed on the probe.”

Why is he still there? Readers may want to ask Nancy Pelosi. Though Mollohan was forced down from his chairmanship of the House Ethics(?!?) Committee, he retained his place at the Appropriations trough.

TPM Muckraker reports, “Republicans in his district are lining up to take on Mollohan next year, and his ethics issues will no doubt be a liability,” and cites Don Surber’s Charleston Daily Mail as the source.

Surber noticed last week: Justice Department investigates Mollohan.

Will this have any effect on whether Alan “Money” Mollohan, the Overnight Millionaire, is prosecuted?

Time will tell. But no time is needed to recognize a clear conflict of interest.

MORE: Alan Mollohan: Corruption, Cronies and Crocks of Earmarks in WV. Why Mollohan is being investigated in the first place. “Egregious” is the word that first comes to mind, though others may have other words.

Synonyms for Kent Conrad, a man who is, for the present, a senator from North Dakota.

Arrogant. Constitutionally- and historically ignorant.

Readers are invited to supply other definitions as they occur.

Story at Sen. Conrad Suggests That People Who Don’t Believe in Civilian Trials for Terrorists Should Leave America and ‘Go Somewhere Else’

Always thought North Dakota folks were pretty sensible. How’d this joker get through the cracks?

This is another example of the arrogance of Senators who go to Washington and forget where they came from. Oh, yeah, one more: dumbass.

MORE: Dem senator: Americans who don’t want KSM tried in civilian court can “go somewhere else”