What Obama Hath Wrought (Updated: ACORN connection)

Populist rage fueled by the President himself has now entered an area not seen in American politics for generations:

The Connecticut Working Families Party this weekend has organized a bus tour that will make stops at the security-patrolled homes of AIG execs who are fearing for their lives.

"I know there's a lot of anger and a lot of rage about what's happened. We're not looking to foment rage unnecessarily, but what we want to do is give folks an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy."

Right, they're not fomenting rage, they're just encouraging it. So if you happen to record someone's address so you can return in the dead of night, it's not like Working Families told you to!

This is the kind of thing that led to guillotines in France. Having a President who can direct populist rage against any target he chooses is so dangerous I am amazed there hasn't been more written about this.

UPDATE:
P.W. Dunn emails:
The connection is not merely theoretical. Sweetness and Light points out that ACORN is a co-founder of the Connecticut Working Families Party. This is thuggish behavior by Obama's organization.

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Why Are Democrats Faking on AIG Bonuses?

Several talk show hosts (like Laura Ingraham) were exposing the faked Democratic ignorance of the AIG bonuses just like Chicago Tribune columnist John Kass did on Sunday:

"What they're trying to drown out with all their screaming is that the Democrats knew all about the $165 million to the AIG suits. And the Obama White House knew all about it too."

Kass wrote the AIG bonuses present a real problem for the party of Hate the Rich:

But all this false congressional outrage and shrieking and fingerpointing should be understood for what it really is: Political buttocks-covering by Democrats who are worried about the 2010 elections, and afraid of losing their greatest symbolic weapon: The Evil Rich Guy.

Kass poked at the Washington reporters with the "tingles up their legs" to stop being enthralled and start being appalled at the Democratic charade...

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image toon - 1st mny crpt reps libs - AIG = need pay top talent = bribes to OBY and DODD

Deficit to hit $9.3 trillion in next decade

Staggering numbers released Friday show President Obama's new budget will nearly double the cumulative deficit over the next decade to $9.3 trillion, damaging the president's ambitious plans to overhaul health care and boost spending on alternative energy. As a result of a worsening economy and new spending, the fiscal 2009 deficit will reach $1.8 trillion - four times the record set last year and $400 billion more than projected two months ago...
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Obama: Budget priorities won't change
President Obama said Saturday he will publicly push his key budget priorities in the coming week as Congress considers his $3.6 trillion proposal for 2010, acknowledging the numbers may change but saying he will insist that it invests in alternative energy, education, health care reform and deficit reduction... [??]
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Subject: image toon - 1st fnn mny reps - Oby's plan for Titanic = reduce smoke stack emissions

A Working President?

Yesterday, with teleprompter at the ready, our illustrious leader spoke (I should say read) a special message to the people of Iran, espousing his understanding of their culture and promising a renewed compassion by the American people.

Perhaps tomorrow he can squeeze a moment between bowling and riding around on Air Force One-to actually attempt to fill one of the 17 vacant positions in the Treasury Department?

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Subon - 1st fnn crpt reps libs - Oby's great depression work = NCAA picks and Leno show

US Looking for Reciprocal Iranian Gesture After Obama Message

The State Department said Friday U.S. officials are looking for a reciprocal gesture from Iran after President Barack Obama's conciliatory holiday message to the Iranian people and government Thursday. Mr. Obama said in a broadcast for the Iranian new year holiday Nowruz that the United States wants "honest engagement" with Tehran based on mutual respect.

State Department officials say the broadcast overture by the President is only one of several gestures planned by the administration ...

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Iran's supreme leader dismisses Obama overtures
TEHRAN, Iran – Iran's supreme leader rebuffed President Barack Obama's latest outreach on Saturday, saying Tehran was still waiting to see concrete changes in U.S. policy.

"They chant the slogan of change but no change is seen in practice. We haven't seen any change,"

Khamenei said in a speech before a crowd of tens of thousands in the northeastern holy city of Mashhad.

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Walid Phares on Obama's Iran message

Some thoughts from an Iran expert who has a track record of being right in the past. He is a man who should be listened to by the Obama Administration - but won't be. Here are some of his thoughts given to Russian and Lebanese TV stations in the wake of President Obama's message to Iran:

Washington wants to engage Iran on the ground of stopping the military nuclear program and ceasing support to Hezbollah and Hamas, while Tehran considers these matters as a no-go area of concession.

This statement by Obama may be an opportunity for the Iranian decision-makers to consider a u-turn on strategic matters, but the fact is that the regime feels it has the upper hand everywhere in the Middle East.

Why would they make concessions if their perception is that the US is already withdrawing from Iraq, is requesting their help in Afghanistan and is not committed to support democracy in Iran?

Dr. Phares believes there's a real chance that this overture will actually harden the position of the Iranian regime unless Ahmadinejad loses the presidential election this summer.

We don't see much from Obama with regard to shoring up our alliances with our friends nor do we see any recognition of the fact that our sped up withdrawal from Iraq may leave that country wide open to Iranian meddling.

In fact, there is little hope the current administration will do anything meaningful to counter growing Iranian strength and the subsequent threat they represent to our interests.

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Left out of the President's Iran message

President Obama's message to Iran is being praised by the media for its forward looking approach to relations with Iran. Unfortunately, at least one Iranian blogger did not have the inspiring opportunity to hear it:

A young Iranian blogger jailed in Tehran's notorious Evin prison for insulting supreme leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei has died, his lawyer told AFP on Thursday. Mohammad Ali Dadkhah said that although there is not yet an official report about the death on Wednesday of Omid Mir Sayafi, "officials in the prison said that he committed suicide."

And what horrible crime did the 25 year old commit to be imprisoned under conditions worse than say, Guantanamo?

The blogger, aged around 25, was sentenced in February to 30 months in jail for insulting Khamenei and Ayatollah Ruhollah Khomeini, founder of the Islamic Republic. Iran has launched a crackdown on bloggers and Internet users deemed to be hostile to the authorities and their Islamic values.

Busy condemning Israel for defending itself against rockets continuing to fall on Israeli schools, hospitals and other civilian sites and the U.S. for detaining prisoners in Guantanamo under conditions infinitely better than in Iran, none of the various 'human rights organizations' have made any comments about the Iranian blogger's death or this Iranian crackdown.

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Russian planes fly over U.S. naval ships

Washington - Two Russian planes flew within 500 feet of U.S. Navy ships participating in military drills with South Korea, military officials said. After trying unsuccessfully to contact the pilots, U.S. fighter jets met up with the Russian planes and flew with them until they left the area.

Russian Ilyushin IL-38 maritime patrol aircraft flew over the aircraft carrier USS John C. Stennis while it was in international waters in the Sea of Japan.

[This is dangerously irresponsible behavior: any degradation in a Carrier Group's defcon status, which Russia has no way of knowing, calls for repulsion of any such intrusion long before it's within range of doing harm.]

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Andean countries, EU to continue FTA dialogue

LIMA, -- Peruvian, Colombian and Ecuadorian officials will hold meetings with their counterparts from the European Union (EU) next week for a Free Trade Agreement, Peruvian authorities said on Friday.

[Everyone but US - thanks unions.]

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Congress's Union-Driven Refusal To OK The Colombia Free Trade Pact Is Shameful
Yesterday I argued that the Obama administration has been disrespecting the leaders of Brazil and Mexico. For much more on what is going on in Latin America, please read Mario Loyola's article in National Review. He highlights the growing ties between Iran and Russia with the leaders of Venezuela, Ecuador, Bolivia, and Nicaragua and the dangers they pose. All the more reason that the United States should cooperate with the constructive leaders of Brazil and Mexico, the two most populous countries in Latin America.

And why it is shameful that Congress, at the behest of labor unions, refuses to ratify the free trade agreement with Colombia, the third-most-populous country in Latin America and one under attack from the authoritarian demagogue Hugo Chavez of Venezuela. Let's show a little respect for our friends and neighbors..

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Capping & Trading on Obama's $250,000 Lie

While the 95% promise leaves room for endless semantic swordplay, this one, originally declared by candidate Obama last September, does not:

"I can make a firm pledge. Under my plan, no family making less than $250,000 a year will see any form of tax increase. Not your income tax, not your payroll tax, not your capital gains taxes, not any of your taxes."

And yet it was just days after dancing at his inaugural ball that President Obama waltzed around that pledge by signing a $33 billion State Children's Health Insurance Program (SCHIP) expansion bill. For in order to pay for his campaign promise, which broadened health insurance subsidies for children and qualifying adults in “lower-[not just 'low'] income” families, he increased the federal excise tax on tobacco by a massive 156 percent.

Despite the fact that no one will be harmed more by the regressive 61.6 cents per pack hike than the “lower-income” families Obama has always promised to protect.

[First they came for the smokers...]

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image toon - bbro sclm - OB can raise the dead - Era of big government

WHICH STATE SHOULD OBAMA EMULATE?

What do Delaware and California have in common? Not much: One is very small, one very large, but more important they have over time followed very different economic policies.

Many years ago Delaware's economic policies were much like California's today:

• It had the highest personal income tax rate (19.8 percent), the second-highest unemployment rate, and the lowest credit rating.
• Government spending rose at triple the rate of inflation for four years and the state budget had five deficits in seven years.
• Two governors of different political parties had presided over this decline and so the state found itself sliding down the slippery slope toward depression.

The next administration took a different economic course (that administration was du Pont's; he was elected governor in 1976):

• Spending was held nearly flat for eight consecutive years, the budget was balanced every year and income tax rates were cut almost in half -- from 19.8 percent to 10.3 percent in the top bracket.
• The next governor made further cuts, down to the current 5.95 percent for the top tax bracket.
• The result was real economic progress; jobs increased substantially, income tax revenues increased by 200 percent over the next 20 years and there were no budget deficits in any of those years.

The other side of the coin is modern California, which now has the country's highest income tax rate and lowest credit rating, has raised state spending about 7 percent a year for four years (twice the inflation rate of 3.5 percent) and has been prone to running deficits in many years.

So which of these states' economic policies, Delaware's back then or California's now, has been the model for the new Obama government? That's easy: The federal government has been enacting policies similar to those of shaky California, not successful Delaware...

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Human sacrifices to global warming god

Back in 1500, we learn from a Princeton professor, the Aztecs figured the climate debate was over, and that if you wanted rain and sunshine and other such blessings, it was simple enough what you had to do -- sacrifice 20,000 lives a year to the right gods.

In the year 2009, it's an equally sure thing in the minds of some that carbon in the atmosphere is going to fry us unless we put the welfare of millions on the line, and here is the latest on President Obama's plan -- it could cost industry almost $2 trillion over an eight-year period.

That hefty sum to be paid out to a cap-and-trade carbon tax would snatch money from the pockets of consumers far more than rising oil prices did, hinder economic growth and in still other ways generate human misery, and all in the name of what?

Computer models that have yet to get anything right, that's what.

"Over the past 10 years there has been no global warming, and in fact a slight cooling," ... "This is not at all what was predicted by the IPCC models,"

physicist William Happer recently told a Senate committee, referring to the computer conclusions of the U.N.'s Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change. [snip]

But what if these skeptics are wrong? If there is a possibility of error, some argue, we should err on the side of safety -- we should have those carbon taxes -- and that might be true if a carbon tax was not itself a powerful peril with the potential to cause the death of millions in the 3rd world.

This will be inexcusable given that it's now clear to anyone willing to look with open eyes that we are putting global-warming garbage into computers, getting garbage out of them and that some are then treating that garbage like a god...

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White House Admits Cap-And-Trade Tax Costs Triple Their Official Estimate

I’ve already explained here on the Forum how the cap-and-trade energy tax works, and would be the biggest tax increase in the history of the country.

Now, amazingly, the White House is telling something closer to the truth about this tax hike, admitting that the official budget estimate of $646 billion, already a mighty steep price to pay, is far, far lower than the real cost...

If Furman is right that the real tax hike would be two or three times the official budget estimate—and it’s likely still a lowball—that would mean the actual tax hike would run well into the trillions, roughly between $1.3 trillion and $1.9 trillion between fiscal years 2012 and 2019 by Furman’s own estimate.

Remember that these staggering costs of $1.3 to $1.9 trillion are for just the first 8 years of a 40 year program that gets much more expensive over time.

This would be the final knock-out blow for a wobbly U.S. economy, and we can only hope that as people learn the facts they’ll oppose it strongly enough to force Congress and the White House back to the drawing board..

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image toon - OB's cap and trade short circuiting power companies

Uncle Sam, MD? Not so fast.

Last Thursday, the nation’s preeminent business organization released a study showing that the high costs of the American healthcare system puts American businesses at a significant disadvantage.

This study shows that healthcare reform is integral to the country’s economic recovery. President Barack Obama understands this, and has vowed to pass comprehensive reform legislation by the end of the year. Unfortunately, administration officials have indicated that their proposals will likely be raising taxes to finance a massive expansion of the public healthcare system.

But the American people resoundingly disapprove of this approach.

The administration should toss it aside, and instead focus on implementing bipartisan measures that reform the system from the inside...

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ALLOWING CONSUMERS TO "SHOP AROUND" FOR HEALTH CARE
America's health care system has become one of the most expensive in the world. On a per person basis, the United States spends more on health care than any other country:

• On average, consumers spend less and less out of their own pockets for health care; health insurance and government programs have grown so large they end up footing the bill for almost 90 percent of all health care costs.
• That's a "good" thing to many political leaders, but it has stunted the efficiency of the health care industry.
• When someone else pays, the incentive to "shop around" for the best price, service, quality, etc. simply isn't there.
• When patients do not pay their own bills, they do not act like typical consumers because they care little about the cost of the care they receive.

If consumers were allowed to shop around for medical care, the whole system would look completely different. Hospitals and doctors would be forced to compete against each other. They would have to provide a good price, good service and the best value to attract customers.

Since 1992 health care costs have risen dramatically -- they've grown twice as fast as inflation.

However, cosmetic surgery is the exception. Why?

Because it isn't paid for by government health plans and insurance policies - it's completely optional. Consumers pay out of their own pockets, consequently price competition has had the predictable effect of keeping all prices as low as they can be...

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image toon - hcare - only up graph = health care costs

Anti-war Article Highlights T-shirt With Bush's Brain Spilling Out

Despite being in so much financial trouble it could be facing extinction, the San Francisco Chronicle continues to be one of the most disgraceful newspapers in the country.

In a piece dealing with Saturday's anti-war protest held in the City by the Bay, the authors disgustingly felt the need to share with their readers a truly offensive t-shirt that was for sale at the event (file photo): [couldn't find, even at the source piece - but...]

Bruce Yurgil, a cartoonist from San Rafael, was trying to unload 80 homemade T-shirts showing former President George W. Bush's brain spilling from his head. The T-shirts were marked down half-price, to $10.

Somewhat ironic given the Chronicle's inability to sell advertising space, wouldn't you agree? After all, even the salesman in question understood how difficult it now is to sell Bush Derangement Syndrome:

"It's no fun being a cartoonist these days," ... "The only person I can make fun of any more is Rush Limbaugh." [why?]

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[Did find the following at the source piece:

[Bush in more evil than Bin Laden,

Inverted American flag,

and of course, the ever-popular 'kaffiyah' scarf, made fashionable by a self-professed terrorist by the name of Yasar Arafat.

So proud.]

SF Chron Reports 'Massive' Anti-War Protest, Completely Ignored Larger Tea Party

Back on March 15, Noel Sheppard noted that the San Francisco Chronicle completely ignored the thousands of average Americans that came together in Cincinnati, Ohio to protest Obama's unprecedented take over of the US economy.

The Cincinnati Tea Party truly was massive but is just one of the many dozens of Tea Party protests that have occurred -- and are continuing to occur -- all across the country in the last two months. Still, the SF Chronicle didn't see any reason to cover the rally.

But never fear for the Chronicle does enjoy a good protest, nonetheless. As long as it's of a leftist, anti-war flavor, of course. Witness the Chron's coverage of the "Massive anti-war, anti-Wall Street protest" from this weekend, March 21.

This rally was no bigger (and arguably smaller) than the anti-Obama protests in Cincinnati, yet the Chronicle reserves the word "massive" for the anti-war/anti-Wall Street protest while offering no coverage at all for the one in Cincy.

If size was the key here, as the Chronicle's headline seems to note, then why ignore the likely bigger protest in Ohio only a week ago?

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Hayward begins ticketing for smoking in public

Lighted cigarettes meant lightened purses and wallets for smokers who were caught puffing in public this week, as the city began enforcement of a smoking ban that technically went into effect last summer. The law, passed by the City Council last May, mandates a $50 fine for smoking on sidewalks, streets and other public places...

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Why the White House barred press access to the press awards ceremony

Charles Johnson of Little Green Footballs explains why the White House barred the press from a press awards ceremony yesterday:

The National Newspaper Association, despite its innocuous name, is actually an association of far-left publications that includes “Final Call” — the paper published by Louis Farrakhan’s Nation of Islam.

And that explains why Obama doesn’t want the mainstream press at this award ceremony. A reporter might get it in his head to act like a, you know, reporter and actually ask a meaningful question; such as why the President of the United States is accepting an award from an association that allows members who believe white people are devils and Jews are scum.

Perhaps he shouldn't have fretted so much.

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Iraq sees first Western tour group since Saddam fell

BAGHDAD – Iraq has received its first group of Western tourists since the fall of Saddam Hussein in 2003, the Tourism and Antiquities Ministry said on Thursday. The group of eight holidaymakers -- five Britons, two Americans and a Canadian -- arrived on March 8 and toured Iraq's landmark historic sites, including the Biblical city of Babylon, fabled home to the Hanging Gardens.

[Keep in mind? I mean, it would be a great way to help support our fledgling ally and I for one would love to see and support what so much American sweat and blood have paid for.]

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CNN Defines 'A Moderate Democrat'

This week CNN's Political Ticker reported "Congresswoman takes post in State Department." The article begins:

California congresswoman Ellen Tauscher is vacating her Bay Area seat to serve under Hillary Clinton at the State Department.

Tauscher, a moderate Democrat and a member of the House Armed Services Committee, said in a message to her constituents that Clinton had asked her to serve as undersecretary of state for arms control and international security.

Let's briefly examine the congressional voting record of the "moderate Democrat" Ellen Tauscher.

According to interest group evaluations compiled by Project Vote Smart, for 2007 the congresswoman received a zero from the American Conservative Union and the National Right to Life Committee, an F from the National Taxpayers Union, an F- from Gun Owners of America, and a 4 [of 100] from Citizens Against Government Waste.

In contrast, she was awarded 100 percent ratings by NARAL Pro-Choice America, the American Civil Liberties Union, the National Education Association, and the National Organization for Women. Americans for Democratic Action assigned her a 95 and the AFL-CIO accorded her a 96.

CNN considers such a voting record to be one of a moderate Democrat. Apparently, over at the most trusted name in news, liberals are as rare as a Barack Obama misstep.

[What spin-by-(mis)labeling?]

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