Thursday, April 2, 2009
The Illegal, Unconstitutional Bush-Obama Auto Bailout
The Bush-Obama intrusion into the auto industry is an illegal use of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) enacted by Congress in October, and it flatly violates a fundamental constitutional provision.
TARP authorized the treasury secretary to spend $700 billion, but it did not authorize him to spend it anywhere on anything. While the definition of what he could spend it on ("troubled assets") was broad, the definition of where ("financial institutions") was narrow.
"The secretary is authorized to establish the Troubled Asset Relief Program (or 'TARP') to purchase, and to make and fund commitments to purchase, troubled assets from any financial institution,"
- says the law -
"The term 'financial institution' means any institution, including, but not limited to, any bank, savings association, credit union, security broker or dealer, or insurance company, established and regulated under the laws of the United States or any State, territory, or possession of the United States ... ."
In other words, no matter how much wiggle room the law gives the secretary in defining "troubled assets," it does not give him the authority to purchase them from food, furniture or fishing rod makers - or car companies.
In our constitutional system, that should have activated a principle so simple a second-grader can understand it and so important that our system of government depends on our leaders respecting it:
"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law."
says the Constitution. But for anyone not reading at a 2nd grade level, it means that because Congress did not authorize the president to spend money bailing out automakers, the president is not authorized to spend money bailing out automakers. [snip]
Gibbs essentially said it is legal because the Obama administration -- like the Bush administration before it -- says it is legal.
"I think that determination has been made, both in the previous administration and in the current administration, that this is assistance that is -- is legal," said Gibbs. "Our goal is to ensure that taxpayers in any instance where money is used feel confident that it's being done in a transparent and accountable way, and one that protects their interests."
What about our interest in having presidents who obey the Constitution?
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Reordering Begins
Democrat-controlled Washington has rebranded the war on terror as an "Overseas Contingency Operation." That conflict, a life-and-death struggle, has been replaced with a war on business.
The House Financial Services Committee, under the direction of Democratic Chairman Barney Frank, isn't content with the White House's proposal to cap the pay of executives beyond those whose companies took bailout cash.
It wants to control the pay of every employee of any financial institution that has "received or receives a capital investment" from the federal government under the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008, last year's $700 billion bailout.
The Pay for Performance Act of 2009 was approved 38-22 by the Financial Services Committee last week with only two Republicans, Reps. Ed Royce of California and Walter Jones of North Carolina, in support.
Should the bill get by Congress — the full House is expected to vote on it this week — and receive the president's signature, it will "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards."
And who decides what is "unreasonable" and "excessive?" The unelected secretary of the Treasury, in this case Timothy Geithner...
READ MORE
Then >
"OPPOSE THE PAY FOR PERFORMANCE ACT"
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
.
The GOP's Alternative Budget
Today, the House of Representatives will consider two budget plans that represent dramatically different visions for our nation's future.
We will first consider President Barack Obama's plan. To be clear, this is no ordinary budget. In a nutshell, the president and Democratic leaders in Congress are attempting to bring about the third and final great wave of progressivism, building on top of the New Deal and the Great Society.
So America is placed in a special moment in our history -- brought about by the deep recession, Mr. Obama's ambitious agenda, and the pending fiscal tidal-wave of red ink brought forward by the looming insolvency of our entitlement programs. If this agenda comes to pass, it will mark this period in history as the moment America turned European
House Republicans will offer an alternative plan.
This too is no ordinary budget. As the opposition party, we believe this moment must be met by offering the American people a different way forward -- one based on our belief that America is an exceptional nation, and we want to keep it that way. Our budget applies our country's enduring first principles to the problems of our day. Rather than attempting to equalize the results of peoples' lives and micromanaging their affairs, we seek to preserve our system of protecting our natural rights and equalizing opportunity for all. The plan works to accomplish four main goals:
- 1) fulfill the mission of health and retirement security;
- 2) control our nation's debts;
- 3) put the economy on a path of growth and leadership, and
- 4) preserve the American legacy of leaving the next generation better off.
Instead of doubling the debt in five years, and tripling it in 10, the Republican budget curbs the explosion in spending called for by the president and his party. Our plan halts the borrow-and-spend philosophy that brought about today's economic problems, and puts a stop to heaping ever-growing debt on future generations -- and it does so by controlling spending, not by raising taxes. The greatest difference lies in the size of government our budgets achieve over time (see nearby chart).
While our approach ensures a sturdy safety net for those facing chronic or temporary difficulties, it understands that the reliability of this protection and the other functions of government depend on a vibrant, free and growing private sector to generate the resources necessary for it.
We hope the administration and Democratic leaders in Congress do not distort and preach fear about our Republican plan. Some may be tempted to appeal to the darker emotions of envy and insecurity that surely run high in times like these. Yet we know Americans are stronger, smarter and prouder than this ploy assumes.
Here's an outline of what we propose:
[MUST READ {it's your money} > ]
READ MORE
Then >
"SUPPORT GOP ALTERNATIVE BUDGET"
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
.
Angela Merkel: Voice of Reason
Amid the panic of the hour, with governments creating, borrowing and spending money like drunken sailors, German Chancellor Angela Merkel has emerged as the conscience of the developed world. Perhaps because she was raised in communist East Germany, or maybe because the memory of the 1920s and the evil political consequences thereof is so ingrained in the psyche of her fellow Germans, she is standing like a rock in the tempest, urging people to be prudent.
Under pressure from the Social Democrats who are part of her Grand Coalition, Merkel has already had to spend much -- about 4.5 percent of the country's GDP over two years -- in order to sustain demand. But she is saying enough is enough. Her opposition was crucial, for instance, in preventing the European Union from adopting a rescue package of $229 billion for Eastern Europe. She has steadfastly resisted the proposal to loosen the tight fiscal rules that govern the common currency, the euro.
And she has withstood pressure from the Social Democrats to rescue Opel, the German subsidiary of General Motors, suggesting that bankruptcy might be in order... [snip]
Albert Einstein is said to have described insanity as doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results. The German chancellor is the one Western leader bearing this piece of wisdom in mind these days.
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Iran denies US claims of meeting
US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton had said that Richard Holbrooke and Mohammad Mehdi Akhoondzadeh had an informal but "cordial exchange" and that the US had given the Iranian delegates a letter.
She said the meeting had been unplanned but that the men had agreed to "stay in touch".
But on Wednesday, foreign ministry spokesman Hassan Ghashghavi told Iran's Mehr news agency:
"No meeting or talk, be it formal or informal, official or unofficial between Iran and US officials took place on the sideline of this conference."
"We categorically deny the reports published in this regard," he said;
"naturally no letter was handed to Iran from the American side".
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Taliban spokesman: U.S. reconciliation offer "lunatic"
KABUL (Reuters) - Taliban insurgents reject a U.S. offer of "honorable reconciliation," a top spokesman said on Wednesday, calling it a "lunatic idea" and saying the only way to end the war was to withdraw foreign troops.
[There is another way to end this war.]
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Obama's Faustian Bargain
The assumption that the Obama administration's diplomatic initiative to our enemies will enhance America's image in the world has yet to be proven. What should concern us more however is the price our enemies will exact from us as part of that rapprochement, and whether it is really and truly worth the cost?
As Barry Rubin of the Global Research in International Affairs Center in Israel wrote recently:"In the Middle East, it is not so useful to think yourself popular and show yourself to be friendly. You have to inspire fear in your enemies and confidence in your friends. And if you don't inspire fear in your enemies - if you're too nice to them - then you will indeed foment fear among your friends."
From Day 1, Obama's stated intention has been to engage diplomatically rather than to confront militarily state sponsors of terror and weapons of mass destruction proliferators like Iran and Syria. However, as he launches his reconciliation effort in the Muslim/Persian world, he had best understand from the outset that non-democratic governments like Syria, and jihadist regimes like Iran as well as non-state Islamic actors like Hezbollah and Hamas move to the beat of a different drum. They do not perceive such overtures as we do. These regimes do not share our Western visions of democratization, globalization, religious tolerance and freedom.
They do, however, have their own vision, and the price they will exact from Obama will be in furtherance of that vision which is to humiliate us, drive us from the Middle East, expunge all Western influence from the region, and "export" Islamic terrorism throughout the world... [snip]
So Mr. President, here's some advice for whatever it may be worth:
You are dealing with an apocalyptic Islamic regime in Tehran whose sole mission is to humiliate the US wherever and whenever possible, expel it from the Middle East and establish Iranian hegemony over the entire region. As you begin pressuring Israel to cede its security, turn Lebanon over to Hezbollah and the Syrians, and begin turning away from our other allies in the Middle East in furtherance of this grand bargain, remember this: the price our enemies are exacting for their "cooperation" is costing us our allies, our credibility, our influence, and will eventually cost us our freedom.
Is it really worth the price?
[Much logical construction/specifics leading to the above conclusion, Highly Recommended > ]
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Anti-Iran movement gains momentum in Europe
.Anti-Iranian demonstrations are scheduled to take place Wednesday in Vienna, Berlin and The Hague to mark the 30th anniversary of the Iranian revolution, amid budding signs of a grassroots protest movement in Europe against Iran and European cooperation with it.
Simone Dinah Hartmann, the spokeswoman for the Stop the Bomb Coalition in Vienna, said her group in Austria is a made up of conservatives, Greens, Jews, Kurdish exiles, representatives of Christian organizations, gays and lesbians... [snip]
She said the group aims to apply steady pressure on the Austrian government and the country's main economic concerns, so they resist doing business with Teheran. The OMV deal has been shelved for the time being.
Austria is Iran's ninth largest business partner in Europe, with Italy, Turkey, Germany and France leading the list, followed by the Netherlands, Greece, Spain and Russia, according to Stop the Bomb figures.
The goal of the organization is to impress upon public opinion in Europe - which has, up until lately, been largely apathetic regarding the Iranian threat, that Teheran's menace is real, she said."Europe doesn't see Iran as that big of a threat, it is so far away, that people just shrug and say, 'Why care?'
[Can they be that blind? A: no. They're just counting on the US to come in and clean up any mess made - if made bigger by delay, no skin off their backs. Meanwhile, while we boycot they deal for profit. And these are our 'alies'...]
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Arab States Unite . . . to Support Mass Murderer
If you wanted to find a single story that summed up everything wrong about the politics of the Arab and Islamic world, it is this little item from the New York Times about the Arab summit meeting in Doha, Qatar.
There may be a warrant for al-Bashir’s arrest sitting in The Hague but he got nothing but hugs, kisses, and statements of support from fellow Arab leaders...
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North Korea looks set to launch missile
Washington - North Korea has positioned a Taepodong-2 missile on the launch pad at its facility in Musudan in the east of the country, U.S. officials told NBC News on Wednesday.
Clinton told reporters that the U.S. believes a North Korean plan to fire a missile for any purpose would violate a resolution by the U.N. Security Council. She said the U.S. would raise the issue with the United Nations...
[OK, that's handled then.]
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The G-20's Funny Money
If the G-20 leaders meeting in London this week have one goal, it is to find a way to reflate the global economy with the least political cost. As bad luck would have it, the International Monetary Fund is standing by to help.
A hint of what's in store came from Japanese Prime Minister Taro Aso earlier this week when he said that he will propose an increase in "special drawing rights," or SDRs, at the IMF. If the term "SDR" sounds vaguely familiar, perhaps that's because it was the subject of a short-lived proposal last week from the head of the People's Bank of China to create a new global reserve currency that could replace the U.S. dollar.
But Mr. Aso's reference to SDRs is something altogether different.
He is proposing a massive expansion in foreign aid, which we will explain below. What is important to understand is that the plan means hundreds of billions of dollars in handouts going to emerging market countries with no strings attached: All governments qualify, including those that lock political dissidents in dungeons and steal from their own people. Treasury is widely believed to support the SDR expansion, despite the fact that it will increase, yet again, costs for American taxpayers and the debt burden of future generations and will reward dictators the world over... [snip]
If Americans decide they want to give more to the neediest, there are honest ways to do it. But to simply blanket the world with conjured dollars and ask already-stretched American taxpayers to pay for it is bad economic policy and even worse governance...
[Recommended > ]
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Rivals' Revamps Vex Ford
.
Having declined federal loans, Ford Motor Co. has been watching the car industry's bailout drama from the sidelines. But now, company officials worry that a bankruptcy filing by a cross-town rival could severely disrupt Ford's operations.
A bankruptcy reorganization by either General Motors Corp. or Chrysler LLC -- as suggested by President Barack Obama this week -- could damage the networks of suppliers and dealers shared by Detroit's three auto makers, throwing uncertainty into Ford's parts deliveries and its retail operation.
Moreover, Ford officials are concerned that bankruptcy could allow GM or Chrysler to restructure more fundamentally and exact deeper concessions from unions and bondholders. That could leave a rival in better competitive shape than Ford, unless Ford can gain the same concessions...
[Yet another, as if needed, reason government should not involve itself in private business: Ford now stands to be punished for their (comparative) good behavior. Governments can only referee business - they can't be both that and a player in the game.]
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A Split At Justice On D.C. Vote Bill
Justice Department lawyers concluded in an unpublished opinion earlier this year that the historic D.C. voting rights bill pending in Congress is unconstitutional, according to sources briefed on the issue. But Attorney General Eric H. Holder Jr., who supports the measure, ordered up a second opinion from other lawyers in his department and determined that the legislation would pass muster.
A finding that the voting rights bill runs afoul of the Constitution could complicate an upcoming House vote and make the measure more vulnerable to a legal challenge that probably would reach the Supreme Court if it is enacted. The bill, which would give the District a vote in the House for the first time, appeared to be on the verge of passing last month before stalling when pro-gun legislators tried to attach an amendment weakening city gun laws. Supporters say it could reach the House floor in May.
In deciding that the measure is unconstitutional, lawyers in the department's Office of Legal Counsel matched a conclusion reached by their Bush administration counterparts nearly two years ago, when a lawyer there testified that a similar bill would not withstand legal attack...
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Federal Plan to Aid Small Businesses Is Flawed, Lenders Say
Two weeks after President Obama announced a $15 billion initiative to spark lending for small businesses, every major provider of these kinds of loans says the plan will not work as designed.
The conditions attached to the program, which require these financial firms to surrender ownership stakes to the government and limit executive pay, are so off-putting that these companies say they will not participate.
Joseph J. DePaolo, chief executive of Signature Bank, said the decision by Congress to crack down on Wall Street bonus payments in recent weeks has made him wary of participating in any government program, let alone the small-business initiative.
The limits on compensation are a significant factor for his firm because it rewards its bankers according to how much business they bring in. That pay scheme is critical to attracting and retaining its employees, he said."Why would you participate? How can you do business if the government at any time can change the rules of the game to protect its investment? That unknown today . . . puts us in a position that we don't feel is prudent."
Signature Bank, has 80 percent of the market share in this business. Associations say most of the smaller players are also unlikely to participate.
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It's the Climate Warming Models, Stupid!
In a painstaking review of the literature accessing the scientific consensus about climate change involving 539 papers published between 2004 and 2007, Schulte and Klaus-Martin in the journal Energy and Environment, published in March 2008, found no actual evidence in any of these papers regarding specific "catastrophic" climate change due to man.
Nada. None. Zero.
Additionally, from this most recent study we learn that less than 50% of the papers endorsed any notion of AGW, and only 7% did so explicitly. This means that over half of these studies did not endorse AGW. This is in contrast to just a few years ago when 75% of reviewed published papers between 1995-2003 suggested that the warming of the 50 years previous was likely to have been anthropogenic, or man-made. This reversal is big news.
This study indicates that the tide is changing and the dissent from AGW markedly growing. As AGW climate models are being continually scrutinized and vetted, there appears to be diminishing evidence witnessed en masse in the learned journals to justify the current climate-change alarm.
Though we shall fight on, now the trick is to begin the even harder task of changing the politicians' minds ... politicians who are already salivating for, and grown used to the idea of, a lucrative carbon-tax, and the additional power they will likely inherit with it. Science alone will not likely defeat the rapaciousness of Washington...
[We'll need demand that reality intrude. Highly Recommended > ]
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The Shut Up and Swallow Congress
Deliberation in Washington is dead. We don't have legislators. We have lemmings. We don't have debates. We have high-speed hysteria sessions.
After ramming through stimulus legislation that no one read and bailout bills that no one understood, Congress is now poised to stuff down taxpayers' throats a deficit-exploding $3.5 trillion budget that enshrines the largest tax increase in American history.
Welcome to the cap-and-trade crap sandwich.
The Democrats want to rig the game so you don't have time to figure out this latest act of collective thievery before it's perpetrated. They have been colluding on a plan to circumvent the Senate's 60-vote threshold and amendment process by attaching their massive green tax scheme to a special budget legislative maneuver ("budget reconciliation" in the parlance of the Washington sausage-makers).
No less than Democratic Sen. Robert Byrd criticized this short-circuiting of debate as an"outrage that must be resisted" and "an undemocratic disservice to our people."
But the eco-zealots on the Hill seem hell-bent on telling Americans to shut up and swallow... [snip]
But once again, the big spenders in Washington can't be bothered with the deliberative process. They have learned nothing from the AIG bailout rush-and-take-back debacle. Or the porkulus waste debacle. Or the TARP-you-can't-believe-in debacle. The lemmings will only contemplate the consequences of their Chicken Little actions after they've sent the economy permanently over the cliff...
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House Democrats unveil sweeping plan to reshape energy in America
— Democrats in the House of Representatives on Tuesday announced a sweeping plan to change how the nation produces and uses energy in order to reduce the risk some believe accompany climate change.
No environmental legislation in America has ever attempted such wide-reaching changes.
The bill — an incomplete draft that will evolve in the months ahead — would subsidize wind, solar and other renewable energy technologies, would require efficiency improvement at homes and businesses, and would mandate the development of cars that run on biofuels and electricity.
It also would make using fossil fuels more expensive — and that will be the central issue of debate in Congress , with armies of lobbyists on both sides...
[and YOU. Read it, read others, and make your wishes known to your representitives often because no one else will...]
READ MORE
"OPPOSE House Democrat Energy Bill"
House-Pelosi: http://speaker.house.gov/contact/
YOUR Congressman: https://forms.house.gov/wyr/welcome.shtml
or: Speed Message them with your personal distribution list...
and as always, pass it on...
.
Quick!!! While He’s Outta the Country, Let’s Change it Back to ‘America’!!!!!!!
The Prez has flown to England and there’s only one thing to do while he’s gone: Let’s get our country back.
I’m pretty sure I can take Harry Reid, Chris Dodd, Chuck Schumer, Maxine Waters, and that puffball press secretary Gibbs. (Snip) Barney Frank I ain’t touchin’… I’m not a homophobe; I simply suffer from an irrational childhood fear of Elmer Fudd....
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