POLITICAL: Obama signs huge spending bill and uses “signing statements” too

Thursday, March 12, 2009

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/obama_spending

Obama backs pet projects and signs spending bill
By PHILIP ELLIOTT, Associated Press Writer Philip Elliott, Associated Press Writer – Thu Mar 12, 1:41 am ET

*** begin quote ***

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama, sounding weary of criticism over federal earmarks, defended Congress’ pet projects Wednesday as he signed an “imperfect” $410 billion measure with thousands of examples. But he said the spending does need tighter restraint and listed guidelines to do it. Obama, accused of hypocrisy by Republicans for embracing billions of dollars of earmarks in the legislation, said they can be useful and noted that he has promised to curb, not eliminate them.

On another potentially controversial matter, the president also issued a “signing statement” with the bill, saying several of its provisions raised constitutional concerns and would be taken merely as suggestions. He has criticized President George W. Bush for often using such statements to claim the right to ignore portions of new laws, and on Monday he said his administration wouldn’t follow those issued by Bush unless authorized by the new attorney general.

White House officials have accused Bush of using the statements to get around Congress in pursuing anti-terror tactics.

Obama signed the bill in private, unlike a number of recent signings that took place with fanfare, but he raised the issue of earmarks in public remarks playing down their scope and possible harm in the measure.

{Extraneous Deleted}

*** end quote ***

So let me see, all those campaign promises were just hot air.

And, we hide away from the cameras to sign it.

And, you sheeple think things were going to “CHANGE”? All you can do is “HOPE” it gets better.

He’s a Chicago hack that said anything to get elected. He’s 100% Socialist.

We can only hope that the American Electorate wakes up in the mid-term election and returns us to gridlock.

Argh!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

GOVEROTRAGEOUS: Cramer (a leftist) points out how O doesn’t get it!

Wednesday, March 11, 2009

http://www.mainstreet.com/article/moneyinvesting/news/cramer-takes-white-house-frank-rich-and-jon-stewart?page=6

Posted March 09, 2009
Cramer Takes on the White House, Frank Rich and Jon Stewart
By Jim Cramer

*** begin quote ***

Suddenly, bloggers, opinion people, columnists and, yes, pundits who haven’t paid attention to anything I have been saying or writing for the past 18 months are all over me. Suddenly, I find myself in the center of a firestorm over Obama’s economic policies, taking enfilading fire from the “liberal” media (from serious columnist Frank Rich to entertainer Jon Stewart) while being defended by Rush Limbaugh, the standard-bearer for the Republicans.

*** and ***

The answer lies in the way the two administrations handled criticism.

The Bush administration, I believed, simply chose to ignore my warnings, perhaps because of a brutal combination of ideology, fecklessness and complacency.

*** and ***

President Obama’s team, unlike Bush’s team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me. When I somewhat obviously and empirically judged that the populist Obama administration is exacerbating the crisis with its budget and policies, as evidenced by the incredible decline in the averages since his inauguration, I was met immediately with condescension and ridicule rather than constructive debate or even just benign dismissal.

*** and ***

The markets thought he could stop it; hence the giant relief rally when he was elected. But in fewer than 50 days of his ascendancy, the markets’ hopes were totally dashed and the averages are now forecasting the worst decline since the Great Depression. As someone who listens to what the averages are screaming, I think they are accurately predicting the future.

I welcome any serious exchange with the administration on the issues that are not beyond my ken: fixing house price depreciation, stopping the destruction of wealth as demonstrated by the stock market’s plunge, and solving the banking crisis before we nationalize every bank.

*** and ***

It’s time to get serious. It’s time to take the issue from the pundits and from the left and right, and put it where it belongs: serious non-ideological debate to put out the real firestorm, the collapse of the economy from Wall Street to Main Street and the ensuing Great Wealth Destruction for all.

But if it stays ad hominem, we will all be betrayed and the train wreck will become inevitable.

*** end quote ***

The inept politicians from both sides of the aisle have destroyed the investments of most people. And, all we get from them is “spend more” and “borrow more”.

STOP!

You’re putting future generations in a hole they will never get out of.

Let the failures go bankrupt. Tough medicine.

We are training future generations NOT to invest.

I’ve had two conversations that are noteworthy.

A young woman has pulled out of her 401k because the losses have eaten into her employer’s contribution and hers. A doctor is moving from equities to bonds and his “financial advisor” at the brokerage house thought it was a good idea (i.e., he gets a commission on trades; not results).

The Market’s P/E ratio is either in or going into the single digits. (Last time that happened the market doubled in a year!) The “natural recovery” from a downturn has already begun. See the uptick in home sales as the “affordability” measure is it’s lowest in decades.

Note to O: (1) Reinstate the uptick rule. (2) Aim the corporate beggars to the bankruptcy courts. (3) Grab your various regulators and ask them to resign. (4) Eliminate Federal guarantees of ARMs, Interest only, and any mortgage that’s not 20% down 30 year fixed “conforming”. (4) Tell the FBI anf your Federal Prosecutors you want some FRAUD convictions for all the bad paper. (5) Tell the SBA that you want a plan to stimulate small business by the end of the day.

Cut the spending, cut the debt, cut the waste.

Argh!

Like that’s ever going to happen!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | GOVEROTRAGEOUS | Tagged: , , , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

GOVERNACIDE: Four civilians killed by the crash

Tuesday, March 10, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/025666.html

March 04, 2009
Why Isn’t This ‘Murder Through Depraved Indifference’?
Posted by William Grigg at March 4, 2009 03:06 PM

*** begin quote ***

Lt. Dan Neubauer, pilot of the stricken F/A-18D Hornet warplane that crashed in University City, near San Diego, last December could have prevented that lethal incident by diverting to North Island Naval Station, as air traffic control had originally instructed.

The jet’s right engine had failed shortly after takeoff from (appropriately enough) the U.S.S. Abraham Lincoln. The other engine was failing. By diverting to North Island, Neubauer would have kept the crippled jet over the Pacific Ocean, and away from heavily populated neighborhoods.Furthermore, established emergency procedures required an emergency landing at North Island in circumstances of this kind.

Instead of following instructions, Lt. Neubauer told air traffic control that “I’m actually going to try to make it to Miramar if possible.”

That course required flying over neighborhoods full of unsuspecting civilians, putting them at unnecessary — in fact, morally impermissible — risk. As if tacitly urging Neubauer to reconsider, air traffic control provided him with a vector that took him near North Island, a course that cost a considerable amount in fuel but offered a second clear chance to avoid potential harm to civilians.

*** and ***

Of course, depraved indifference to “collateral damage” is a salient trait of militarism. This case is different from thousands of others only in that the victims were U.S. citizens, rather than natives of some distant, unfortunate land that found itself the target of the Empire’s murderous attentions.

*** end quote ***

It would be interesting to see the congresscritters, the military, or anyone justify this?

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | GOVERNACIDE | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

LIBERTY: With or against the Federal Government?

Sunday, March 8, 2009

http://www.freestateproject.org/node/16405   

Do you stand with or against the Federal Government?
By Russell Kanning

*** begin quote ***

The 400+ men and women that meet in the NH State House this time of year are discussing whether or not NH should remain a part of the U.S. no matter what the Feds do. A handful of reps decided to put forth a bill, HCR6 that proposes that if the government in Washington DC decides to implement measures like mandatory national service, then NH will leave the union. That seems very reasonable to me. Upon entering the US, NH like the majority of other states, left themselves room to voluntarily leave the arrangement, and this bill is patterned after similar resolutions and declarations penned by Thomas Jefferson. So I am asking you, would you prefer to stand with or against the current incarnation of the US Government?

*** end quote ***

Frankly, I don’t think it matters.

It’s like asking if the slave master will let the serf go. Ain’t going to happen.

Unless the terrorists are landing on the shore, I’d say “against”.

Looking at the Obama acts and quotes, I’d say against.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | LIBERTY | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: If we can’t kill the FED, should they get a proctology exam?

Friday, March 6, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/paul/paul509.html  

End the Fed’s Secretiveness by Ron Paul

Before the US House of Representatives, February 26, 2008

*** begin quote ***

Madame Speaker,

I rise to introduce the Federal Reserve Transparency Act. Throughout its nearly 100-year history, the Federal Reserve has presided over the near-complete destruction of the United States dollar. Since 1913 the dollar has lost over 95% of its purchasing power, aided and abetted by the Federal Reserve’s loose monetary policy. How long will we as a Congress stand idly by while hard-working Americans see their savings eaten away by inflation? Only big-spending politicians and politically favored bankers benefit from inflation.

Serious discussion of proposals to oversee the Federal Reserve is long overdue. I have been a longtime proponent of more effective oversight and auditing of the Fed, but I was far from the first Congressman to advocate these types of proposals. Esteemed former members of the Banking Committee such as Chairmen Wright Patman and Henry B. Gonzales were outspoken critics of the Fed and its lack of transparency.

Since its inception, the Federal Reserve has always operated in the shadows, without sufficient scrutiny or oversight of its operations. While the conventional excuse is that this is intended to reduce the Fed’s susceptibility to political pressures, the reality is that the Fed acts as a foil for the government. Whenever you question the Fed about the strength of the dollar, they will refer you to the Treasury, and vice versa. The Federal Reserve has, on the one hand, many of the privileges of government agencies, while retaining benefits of private organizations, such as being insulated from Freedom of Information Act requests.

The Federal Reserve can enter into agreements with foreign central banks and foreign governments, and the GAO is prohibited from auditing or even seeing these agreements. Why should a government-established agency, whose police force has federal law enforcement powers, and whose notes have legal tender status in this country, be allowed to enter into agreements with foreign powers and foreign banking institutions with no oversight? Particularly when hundreds of billions of dollars of currency swaps have been announced and implemented, the Fed’s negotiations with the European Central Bank, the Bank of International Settlements, and other institutions should face increased scrutiny, most especially because of their significant effect on foreign policy. If the State Department were able to do this, it would be characterized as a rogue agency and brought to heel, and if a private individual did this he might face prosecution under the Logan Act, yet the Fed avoids both fates.

More importantly, the Fed’s funding facilities and its agreements with the Treasury should be reviewed. The Treasury’s supplementary financing accounts that fund Fed facilities allow the Treasury to funnel money to Wall Street without GAO or Congressional oversight. Additional funding facilities, such as the Primary Dealer Credit Facility and the Term Securities Lending Facility, allow the Fed to keep financial asset prices artificially inflated and subsidize poorly performing financial firms.

The Federal Reserve Transparency Act would eliminate restrictions on GAO audits of the Federal Reserve and open Fed operations to enhanced scrutiny. We hear officials constantly lauding the benefits of transparency and especially bemoaning the opacity of the Fed, its monetary policy, and its funding facilities. By opening all Fed operations to a GAO audit and calling for such an audit to be completed by the end of 2010, the Federal Reserve Transparency Act would achieve much-needed transparency of the Federal Reserve. I urge my colleagues to support this bill.

*** end quote ***

I can’t think of any monopoly that is allowed to exist unexamoned.

I’m hard pressed to think of single reason We, The People should permit it.

We are drowning as a nation in a sea of paper money. William Jennings Bryan, who railed about NOT crucifying the farmers on a “gross of gold”, couldn’t have forseen this “crucification” of the American people on a “cross of paper”.

Andrew Jackson went to political war over the “Bank of the United States” and won.

We have to do the same thing.

While the FED is not the source of ALL of our problems, it’s at the root of most of them.

As Thoreau said “… strike at the root”!

That’s the FED!

Don’t empower COngress with their current powers to set the value of money. Return it to the marketplace.

We do that by repealing the “legal tender laws” and allow people to use what ever they deem “money” to be.

Gold anyone?

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: FDIC is not really insuring banks

Thursday, March 5, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/blog/lewrw/archives/025671.html

March 04, 2009
Re: Bair (or Is That Bare?) Says FDIC Going Broke
Posted by Kathryn Muratore at March 4, 2009 05:11 PM

*** begin quote ***

Lew, the counter-intuitive response of government-sponsored bureaucracies like the FDIC make me laugh. So we already know that the FDIC is not really insuring banks in any meaningful sense, although they keep that “Insurance” word in the title. But, imagine what an actual above-board insurance company would do in an emergency – say a hurricane hitting a populated area. In the days before and after the hurricane, can you imagine State Farm sending a bill to all of its customers in the Southeast for an emergency premium hike to cover the payouts that it knows are imminent?

*** end quote ***

Yeah, like Social Security Insurance, which isn’t “insurance” either.

When this musical chairs game stops, who will be left standing?

Taxpayers, the old, those on fixed income.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

MONEY: Inflation on the horizon!

Thursday, March 5, 2009

http://www.lewrockwell.com/buchanan/buchanan105.html

Pitchfork Time by Patrick J. Buchanan

*** end quote ***

Where the U.S. government usually consumes 21 percent of gross domestic product, this Obama budget spends 28 percent in 2009 and runs a deficit of $1.75 trillion, or 12.7 percent of GDP. That is four times the largest deficit of George W. Bush and twice as large a share of the economy as any deficit run since World War II.

Add that 28 percent of GDP spent by the U.S. government to the 12 percent spent by states, counties and cities, and government will consume 40 percent of the economy in 2009.

We are not “headed down the road to socialism.” We are there.

Since the budget was released, word has come that the U.S. economy did not shrink by 3.8 percent in the fourth quarter, but 6.2 percent. All the assumptions in Obama’s budget about growth in 2009 and 2010 need to be revised downward, and the deficits revised upward.

Look for the deficit for 2009 to cross $2 trillion.

*** end quote ***

I don’t know about anyone else, but I can’t afford the Obama budget!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | MONEY | Tagged: , , , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: State of Civil Rights

Wednesday, March 4, 2009

http://townhall.com/columnists/WalterEWilliams/2009/02/25/a_nation_of_cowards

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

A Nation of Cowards

by Walter E. Williams :: Townhall.com Columnist

*** begin quote ***

The bottom line is that the civil rights struggle is over and it is won. At one time black Americans didn’t share the constitutional guarantees shared by whites; today we do. That does not mean that there are not major problems that confront a large segment of the black community, but they are not civil rights problems nor can they be solved through a “conversation on race.” Black illegitimacy stands at 70 percent; nearly 50 percent of black students drop out of high school; and only 30 percent of black youngsters reside in two-parent families. In 2005, while 13 percent of the population, blacks committed over 52 percent of the nation’s homicides and were 46 percent of the homicide victims. Ninety-four percent of black homicide victims had a black person as their murderer. Such pathology, I think much of it precipitated by family breakdown, is entirely new among blacks. In 1940, black illegitimacy was 19 percent; in 1950, only 18 percent of black households were female-headed compared with today’s 70 percent. Both during slavery and as late as 1920, a teenage girl raising a child without a man present was rare among blacks.

If black people continue to accept the corrupt blame game agenda of liberal whites, black politicians and assorted hustlers, as opposed to accepting personal responsibility, the future for many black Americans will remain bleak.

*** end quote ***

# – # – #

I like Walter Williams. He calls them as he sees them.

One of his most memorable quotes was: “The primary victims of Philadelphia’s public schools are black students whose chances for upward mobility are being systematically destroyed by callous politicians and teacher’s unions. If the Grand Dragon of the Ku Klux Klan set out to destroy black academic excellence in Philadelphia, I doubt whether he could achieve as much damage.”

Yup, I sneer at the Islamic fundamentalists, who in denying women their right “to be all they can be”, “poke out their own eye”. They deny themselves the productivity of half their “human resources”.

But, here at home, we are doing something similar to all the minority children as well as most of the non-minority.

We are criminally stupid allowing the gooferment to be involved in education. Specicially the politicians and the teacher’s union should be the outlaws!

# # # # #  

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

POLITICAL: Calling the Democratic budget and tax policy “socialistic”? Yes!

Sunday, March 1, 2009

http://pbsmonitor.blogspot.com/2009/03/bankrupt-republicans-call-obama.html

ROBERTO ANTONIO HUSSEIN
A critical look and commentary on the news as found on TV, radio and in the newspapers.

Sunday, March 1, 2009BANKRUPT REPUBLICANS CALL OBAMA DEMOCRATS “SOCIALISTS”
*** begin quote ***

Larry Kudlow, that Republican ideologue on CNBC, calls the Democratic budget and tax policy “socialistic.”

*** end quote ***

As a little L libertarian, I’m not pleased with EITHER “party”. At least the “conservatives” are closer the “truth” of freedom and liberty that the “Rockefeller Republicans” or any “Democrat”. I think that “socialism” is fair criticism from FDR onward. Probably even since 1913 and the various wars of colonizations (i.e., Spanish American and WW1). Unfortunately, we’ve lost the “American Revolutionary Dream” after the “Civil” War. Which more properly should be called the War of Northern Aggression or the Second American Revolution. Stealing the wealth of the productive class to “redistribute” it to the unproductive class is the hallmark of socialism’s promise. Like most gooferment efforts, it fails at that too. Funny how the benefits seem to accrue to the politicians, their friends, the bureaucrats, and the elite. Stuck on their way to the rest of us no doubt. National Socialism, Communism, European Socialism, Italian Fascism, or just Mercantilism. Call it what you want but it is NOT freedom and liberty. When we get back to the American Dream, we can take the plastic garbage off the Statue of Liberty and welcome everyone who want to work hard again. End welfare and all the gooferment intrusions and the people will thrive and provide. There ain’t no such thing as free lunch. No matter what politicians promise you; they can’t deliver it!

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | Political | Tagged: , , , , , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

GOLDBUG: Can we EVER get back to “honest money”?

Thursday, February 19, 2009

http://news.goldseek.com/JamesTurk/1232989200.php

Restoring Sound Money in America
By: James Turk, Founder & Chairman of GoldMoney.com
— Posted Monday, 26 January 2009 | Digg This ArticleDigg It! | Source: GoldSeek.com

*** begin quote ***

There is a determined grassroots movement in the United States seeking the restoration of sound money. There are many different groups comprising this movement, but all share the same aim. It is to restore gold and silver to its rightful role as the money of the United States, as mandated by the Constitution.

I have written about this movement before. In “The Quest for Sound Money in New Hampshire” in May 2005 I discussed the bill, called the “New Hampshire Sound Money Bill”, that was drafted by Constitutional scholar and lawyer, Dr. Edwin Vieira. It was presented to the New Hampshire legislature, but sadly, remains pending in committee.

If enacted, the bill will enable people to use gold and silver in their transactions with the state of New Hampshire. An article by me discussing this bill, the aims of its several sponsors and some important background information on the monetary provisions of the Constitution can be found at the following link: http://www.goldmoneybill.org/turk.html

*** end quote ***

Sad to say, imho, not without a revolution.

When the people realize that gooferment is funded with inflation of fiat dollars, then they might wise up.

Saving in gold ounces is one option still open to the average bloke.

Buy one or more gold coins from a “paperless source” and bury it in your backyard.

# # # # #

Leave a Comment » | GOLDBUG | Tagged: , , | Permalink
Posted by reinkefj

« Previous Entries
Next Entries »