U.S. deficit pegged at $1.2 trillion in 2009

The U.S. federal budget deficit will reach at least $1.2 trillion in 2009, almost triple its level last year, and could soar several hundred billion dollars higher with the expected passage of a massive economic stimulus package being touted by president-elect Barack Obama.

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Just a few more zeroes

A$1 trillion stimulus bill that many feel won't sufficiently stimulate. On top of as much as $2 trillion dedicated to the Trouble Assets Relief Program, or TARP.

To begin to grasp the enormity of what the Obama administration is proposing to spend, recall that his predecessor provoked a considerable backlash in the fall of 2003 by requesting a measly $87 billion for the reconstruction of Iraq, less than 3 percent of the combined cost of the stimulus bill and TARP. [snip]

Democrats are now seeking not just a third installment to the New Deal, Lyndon Johnson’s Great Society having been the disastrous second, but the transformation of an American economy based on capitalist principles into a European social democracy, with Obama playing the role of 21st century Franklin D. Roosevelt supposedly completing what FDR started. [snip]

Democrats have long been at war with the marketplace, but only now do they have the kind of crisis that will spur much of the public and much of Congress to follow their lead without thinking, even to the point of painting any opposition to the federal government swallowing up the American economy as unpatriotic.

Although Democrats continue to worship at the altar of the New Deal, even liberal economists concede that it didn't "solve" the Great Depression but, indeed, certain of its features might have even made things worse.

Socialism is not the answer to a market downturn; rather, it is, as it always has been, only a guarantee of perpetual downturn. It is the place where, in Mark Steyn's words, nations go to die.

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TARP's comp curbs could be extended to all businesses

Congress will consider legislation to extend some of the curbs on executive pay that now apply only to those banks receiving federal assistance, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank said.

He said the compensation restrictions would apply to all financial institutions and might be extended to include all U.S. companies.

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[Socialism? Oh you whack jobs and your worries about socialism...

It will prevail - that's where the money and power is - if not beaten down at every occurrence]

The Stimulus Tragedy

"(An idea)so manifestly false that we doubt Mr. Obama really believes it."

Everyone agrees that some kind of fiscal stimulus might help the economy, and that running budget deficits is appropriate in a recession. The stage was thus set for the popular President to forge a bipartisan consensus that combined ideas from both parties.

A major cut in the corporate tax favored by Republicans could have been added to Democratic public works spending for a quick political triumph that might have done at least some economic good.

Instead, Mr. Obama chose to let House Democrats write the bill, and they did what comes naturally: They cleaned out their intellectual cupboards and wrote a bill that is 90% social engineering, and 10% economic policy. (See here for a case study.) It is designed to support incomes with government payments, rather than grow incomes through job creation.

We should add how different this is from the 1980s or even the 1960s. Democrats added business tax cuts to the Reagan package of 1981, while Jack Kennedy's chief economist (Walter Heller) promoted marginal rate tax cuts on stimulus grounds in the 1960s.

Yet Mr. Obama, on Thursday, dismissed any such tax cuts as "the same tired arguments and worn ideas that helped to create this crisis." That's rhetoric for a campaign, not for a President hoping to rally bipartisan support.

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The Fierce Urgency of Pork

.

"A failure to act, and act now, will turn crisis into a catastrophe."

-- President Obama, Feb. 4.

Catastrophe, mind you. So much for the president who in his inaugural address two weeks earlier declared "we have chosen hope over fear." Until, that is, you need fear to pass a bill.

And so much for the promise to banish the money changers and influence peddlers from the temple. An ostentatious executive order banning lobbyists was immediately followed by the nomination of at least a dozen current or former lobbyists to high position... [snip]

And yet more damaging to Obama's image than all the hypocrisies in the appointment process is his signature bill: the stimulus package. It's not just pages and pages of special-interest tax breaks, giveaways and protections, one of which would set off a ruinous Smoot-Hawley trade war. It's not just the waste, such as the $88.6 million for new construction for Milwaukee Public Schools, which, reports the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel, have shrinking enrollment, 15 vacant schools and, quite logically, no plans for new construction.

It's the essential fraud of rushing through a bill in which the normal rules (committee hearings, finding revenue to pay for the programs) are suspended on the grounds that a national emergency requires an immediate job-creating stimulus -- and then throwing into it hundreds of billions that have nothing to do with stimulus, that Congress's own budget office says won't be spent until 2011 and beyond, and that are little more than the back-scratching, special-interest, lobby-driven parochialism that Obama came to Washington to abolish. He said. [snip]

I thought the awakening would take six months. It took two and a half weeks.

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image toon - reps 1st - The politics of fear2

Here's How to Make a Real Stimulus Take Flight

In all the talk of economic stimulus in the White House and on Capitol Hill, one element has been conspicuously absent: defense programs. Yet including $20 billion to $25 billion per year of increased defense spending in the stimulus -- a tiny amount in a total package of hundreds of billions -- would be both smart politics and sound policy.

Take the substantive argument first. During the transition, the Obama team advanced three principles about stimulus spending: It should be timely, targeted and temporary. Defense programs more than meet these criteria, as many mainstream economists have pointed out. Compared with infrastructure programs that require lengthy planning, design and approval processes, extending efficient, already running defense procurements would have brief, as the military says, "flash-to-bang" times.

Increasing the size of the armed forces would have an even more direct and immediate effect on employment: Almost all military spending on personnel occurs within the year of appropriation. There would also be a secondary effect as thousands of young men and women who currently possess no skills receive training. People in military service learn a lot -- not just technical and technological skills but also the valuable traits of personal discipline and leadership. [snip]

However, the new director of the Office of Management and Budget, Peter Orszag, has just told the Defense Department to reduce its spending by 50 billion. Substituting accounting discipline for military judgment is not just questionable strategy but incongruous when the Obama administration is furiously trying to stimulate the economy.

Moreover, in ignoring defense needs, the president will be passing on an obvious route to bipartisanship -- pressing social-engineering liberals and green-eyeshade conservatives alike to focus on principled stimulus spending.

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Iraq: Basra is less dangerous than Manchester, British general says

Basra is now less dangerous than Manchester, the general commanding British troops in Iraq has said. Maj Gen Andy Salmon told The Daily Telegraph that following months of steady improvements in the security situation in Iraq's second city, the rate of violent crime and murder in Basra has fallen below some major British cities. "On a per capita basis, if you look at the violence statistics, it is less dangerous than Manchester," he said.
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The Promise In Iraq's Rebirth

... Those who had descended upon Iraq to defeat the United States through terrorism, initially finding favor and support from the "rejectionists," have themselves been rejected by the Iraqi people. Their strategy to ignite a sectarian civil war has failed. And though they still pose a threat to security, those extremist Islamists were comprehensively and strategically defeated in a Muslim country, a development of profound significance.

Furthermore, the elections have proved wrong those who had claimed that Iraqis could not comprehend democracy and therefore could not abide by its rules. The world watched as millions of ordinary Iraqis, proudly displaying their purple forefingers, declared their desire to choose their leaders, and the leaders themselves demonstrated their ability to make adjustments and compromises.

Looking ahead, the exact speed with which American troops are withdrawn must be determined by joint consultations between the political and military leaders of both countries within the parameters of the status-of-forces agreement. But the continued engagement of the United States in Iraq will be vital to ensuring that what has been achieved is not jeopardized, though the emphasis will inevitably shift from military issues to economic and diplomatic matters.

Our nations have mutual interests in Iraq's future. The success of Iraq would be an outstanding success of American foreign policy. If Iraq succeeds, it has the potential to become one of the most important assets and allies of the United States. This is the beginning of a new era in our relationship, one that opens the way to a flourishing economic, cultural, political and diplomatic partnership that augurs well for the future.

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image toon - gwot iraq - Stained fingers

Iran building four more satellites

Tehran - Iran is building four more satellites, the telecommunications minister was quoted on Sunday as saying, after the Islamic Republic put its first domestically produced satellite into orbit last week. Iran launched a research and telecom satellite, called Omid, on Tuesday, (Snip) He also said Omid, which means Hope in Persian, was performing its mission successfully.
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image toon - bdd gwot iran israel nsec - Imanidiot threats v missles for peaceful purposes

US will develop missile defences, if cost effective: Biden

MUNICH, Germany — US Vice President Joe Biden said on Saturday the United States would press ahead with its missile defence programme -- provided it works, is cost effective, and in consultation with Russia.

[Excuse me?]

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Russia gives no ground despite US overtures

MUNICH – Russia sees no need for an immediate response to U.S. overtures to improve relations, the deputy prime minister said Sunday after a meeting with Vice President Joe Biden.

"It is not an Oriental bazaar," ... "And we do not trade the way people do in the bazaars."

Ivanov insisted that Russia had not influenced Kyrgyzstan's decision last week that it would close the Manas air base to the U.S. military, which had been using it to resupply troops in Afghanistan. He rejected suggestions by U.S. officials that Kyrgyzstan acted under pressure after securing more than $2 billion in loans and aid from Russia.

"There is no correlation between the decision of the Kyrgyz republic and loans that the Russian Federation granted to Kyrgyz republic. It was the decision of a sovereign state."

Ivanov also said Russia would continue to build "small bases" in the breakaway Georgian republics of South Ossetia and Abkhazia to prevent Georgia from attacking and called Moscow's recognition of the regions' independence "irrevocable."

[We communicate nothing but weakness and are surprised when treated as if we're weak.]

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The Government Is Indoctrinating Our Children

Last night I told you we're on the road to socialism. When I finish this story you may believe we're on the road to the Hitler Youth. Here's the latest example, and buckle up because it could get even bumpier than yesterday.

One of my radio listeners gave me this exclusive story. This is Al Gore speaking to a bunch of teens and pre-teens at a youth conference on global warming :

(BEGIN SOUND CLIP)

AL GORE, FORMER VICE PRESIDENT OF UNITED STATES: There are some things about our world that you know that older people don't know...

(END SOUND CLIP)

I'm going to play more of this tape for you in a moment, and introduce you to the 12-year-old who recorded it and her dad. But what's the point?

The government and its friends are indoctrinating our children all for control of their minds, your freedom of choice and our future. It must stop, because history (when taught accurately) has already shown us where it leads. This is what the Nazi Joseph Goebbels said about the Hitler Youth:

"If such an art of active mass influence through propaganda is joined with the long-term systematic education of a nation and if both are conducted in a unified and precise way, the relationship between the leadership and the nation will always remain close."

What's next? If mom and dad decide to keep the temperature above 72, should our "Gore Youth" report mom and dad? Should they also report spankings and groundings and every time daddy comes home and watches FOX News?

Environmentalists — along with everyone else looking to promote an agenda — understand that the drug dealer business model can work for them: Get kids hooked when they're young and you'll have a customer for life...

[Our public school system has become an indoctrination mechanism - we need universal school choice vouchers]

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Student faces expulsion for fake drill team guns

AURORA - A local school district has suspended a member of the Young Marines youth leadership group after students saw drill props in her vehicle.

Marie Morrow, a 17-year-old senior at Cherokee Trail High School in Aurora, is serving a 10-day suspension. Her punishment could be extended at an expulsion hearing later this month.

Morrow is a student leader in the Douglas County Young Marines, a group dedicated to teaching leadership and life skills.

Cherry Creek Schools suspended Morrow after other students reported seeing guns inside her SUV, which was parked outside school while she was in class.

The school also called police, who seized the three drill team guns made of wood, plastic and duct tape. Police told Morrow to claim them in time for her after-school drill practice off-campus. [snip]

Chris Proctor, commanding officer of the Douglas County Young Marines, was rebuffed in his attempt to explain the props to school leaders.

"There's no mistaking that these are not real rifles. I think somewhere along the line, logic has to take over ... Marie is one of the best kids that you could ever imagine,"

A hearing officer could recommend Morrow be allowed back in school after her 10-day suspension or could expel her for as much as the rest of her senior year. The final decision belongs to the Cherry Creek Schools superintendent.

"I just don't want it to affect her view on the world, (make her believe) that people who do the right thing don't come out on top," said her mother, Jennifer McGrew. "I've always kind of really looked up to my daughter for having a mind of her own and going places that I never even dreamed."

[This is government run schooling - indoctrination centers for liberal fascism. We need universal-unencumbered school vouchers.]

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Few Fear Global Warming Will End World

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey found that 66% say it’s not likely that civilization will be destroyed by the year 2100. That includes 27% who say it is not at all likely.

Republicans and unaffiliated voters strongly reject the notion that global warming will end human civilization, but even Democrats don't subscribe to the idea with 38% thinking that a disastrous outcome is likely while 46% disagree.

Sixty-two percent (62%) of Democrats say we must take immediate action*, but 64% of GOP voters say it’s all right to wait a few years to see if the problem is real.

A plurality of unaffiliated voters give the edge to waiting.

[* Liberal logic: only 38% of Dems believe Armageddon likely - but 62% say we must take immediate action.]

Forty-five percent (45%) of voters acknowledge** there is conflict between economic growth and environmental protection.

Former Vice President Al Gore won the Nobel Peace Prize for his anti-global warming efforts, but just 36% of voters believe he knows what he’s talking about.

[** a little Rasmussen bias there with that 'acknowledge' {you know; the inverse of denial}]

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Trashing the Fridge

FOR the last two years, Rachel Muston, a 32-year-old information-technology worker for the Canadian government in Ottawa, has been taking steps to reduce her carbon footprint. About a year ago, she decided to “go big” in her effort to be more environmentally responsible, decoded tp unplugged her refrigerator. For good. [snip]

As drastic as the move might seem, a small segment of the green movement has come to regard the refrigerator as an unacceptable drain on energy, and is choosing to live without it. In spite of its ubiquity — 99.5 percent of American homes have one — these advocates say the refrigerator is unnecessary, as long as one is careful about shopping choices and food storage.

“It seems wasteful to me to use even an Energy Star-rated fridge,” she said, “because I’m getting along fine without one.”

“I could drop the refrigerator completely if I had a milkman,” ... I might eventually try it again if I ever figure out the milk situation.”


In the end she compromised and bought a minifridge.

[meanwhile, the adults point out;]

“The refrigerator was a smart advance for society,” said Gretchen Willis, 37, a mother of four in Arlington, Tex., who recently read about the practice on a popular eco-themed blog, thecrunchychicken.com, and was astounded.

Ms. Willis said that she would have to buy more food in smaller quantities because of spoilage, prepare exact amounts because she couldn’t refrigerate leftovers, and make daily trips* to the grocery store...

[*she wouldn't be {gasp} driving to the store would she?]

[Q: how stupid are these folks allowed to become before we're not labeled as 'insensitive' for publicly pointing out that they're idiots {to say nothing of hypocrites}?]

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Obama's newest energy focus: appliances

Washington - Eager to show action on energy savings for consumers and reduced warming emissions for the planet, President Barack Obama on Thursday ordered quicker, and in some cases new, efforts to make many appliances much more energy efficient. ''This will save consumers money, this will spur innovation and this will conserve tremendous amounts of energy,''

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[I retract my prior statement. {sigh}]

L.A. City Controller Laura Chick opposes solar energy plan

California
Los Angeles City Controller Laura Chick formally came out today against the solar energy plan known as Measure B, saying the proposal was rushed through the City Council without sufficient review. Chick noted with dismay that there are two reports with widely divergent cost estimates for Measure B, which would add 400 megawatts of solar panels to parking lots, rooftops and other surfaces by 2014.
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CALIFORNIA'S "GREEN JOBS" EXPERIMENT ISN'T GOING WELL

Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger was all smiles in 2006 when he signed into law the toughest anti-global-warming regulations of any state. Schwarzenegger and his green supporters boasted that the regulations would steer the Golden State into a prosperous era of green jobs, renewable energy, and technological leadership. Instead, since 2007 -- in anticipation of the new mandates -- California has led the nation in job losses, says Stephen Moore, a senior economics writer for the Wall Street Journal.

What happened?

• The regulations created a cap-and-trade system, similar to proposed federal global-warming measures, by limiting the CO2 that utilities, trucking companies and other businesses can emit.
• It imposed steep costs ($23 billion of new taxes and fees on households through higher electricity bills) on companies that exceed the caps; since energy is an input in everything that's produced, this will raise the cost of production inside California's borders.

Now the state is losing jobs, a lot of them:

• California's unemployment rate hit 9.3 percent in December, up from 4.9 percent in December 2006.
• There are now 1.5 million Californians out of work.
• The state has the fourth-highest housing foreclosure rate in the nation, has lost more businesses than any state in recent years, and is facing a $40 billion deficit.

With cap and trade firmly in place, the economic situation is only likely to get worse, says Moore.

Meanwhile, other states are plundering the Golden State's industries by convincing businesses to pick up stakes and move out before the cap-and-trade earthquake hits. Green policies have a tendency to push states into the red, says Moore.

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Little noted move on census by Obama could spell disaster

There's a reason the Census Bureau is a quaisi-independent agency that reports directly to the Commerce secretary. The census has been taken since the very early days of the republic and always in as non-partisan a manner as possible. Until now:

The Capitol Hill publication Congressional Quarterly yesterday reported that the White House, responding to minority groups' concerns about Gregg's commitment to funding the census, has decided to have the director of the Census Bureau report directly to the White House.

Trying to game the census for political purposes is just about what we'd expect from this crew. They have talked so long about building a permanent majority*, manipulating numbers to perhaps overcount their core constituencies should not be put past them.

If Bush/Rove had dared to do something like this it would have been headline news nationally. As it is, we hear barely a peep from the media and are not likely to in the future.

[*A permanent majority is also the driving force behind reinstatement of the insultingly named 'fairness doctrine', as this very issue proves: if not for the alternative conservative media, would you even know of this power grab given the MSM's silence? Exactly. When again the majority of major news sources are theirs {liberal} alone, controlling the masses will be as easy as it was in the 60s.]

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How the News Became Propaganda

The never-ending campaign of President Barack Obama finds a cornerstone in 24-hour television network CNN.

CNN, home of Wolf Blitzer and Larry King Live among other talking heads, now leads the Newsfront Cult called Obamamania.

While the viewers of most television networks watch the news, CNN viewers “wear the news”:

“Apparently CNN, having abandoned any effort to appear impartial, is now selling T-shirts that commemorate Obama’s newborn presidency,” reader Fred Dardick wrote in a Canada Free Press (CFP) letter to the editor yesterday.

CNN T-shirts include slogans such as “Obama raises hand, lifts a nation” and “Obama: It’s time to remake America”.

“This is anti-American to the core as far as I am concerned. How is it possible for a major news organization to get away with this?”

CNN is not only cashing in on the sales of the T-shirts, it provides tangible proof that “The News is Propaganda”.

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Mission residents reject American Apparel
CALIFORNIA

San Francisco Chronicle, by C.W. Nevius Original Article
Posted By: NorthernDog- 2/8/2009 11:09:12 AM Post Reply
Congratulations to the residents of Valencia Street. After a rowdy and sometimes misleading campaign, they managed to stop American Apparel - a socially conscious, popular, American-run clothing store - from moving into one of the street's vacant storefronts. (Snip)

It's another through-the-looking-glass moment in San Francisco. They love the product but hate the store solely because there are about 260 of them worldwide. That means it's a chain and unwelcome under any circumstances.

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OSHA?