Monday, March 30, 2009
Rep. Manzullo to Geithner: Your Plan Is 'Radical'
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In testimony before the House Financial Services committee that just adjourned, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner just had to defend his institutional takeover plan against charges of radicalism.
Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) asked.
Geither began, before Manzullo interrupted him.
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In testimony before the House Financial Services committee that just adjourned, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner just had to defend his institutional takeover plan against charges of radicalism.
"Do you realize how radical your proposal is?"
Rep. Donald Manzullo (R-Ill.) asked.
"It's not radical. . ."
Geither began, before Manzullo interrupted him.
"You're talking about seizing private businesses and you don't consider that radical?"
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Just 11% Say Government Can Run Financial Institutions Better
Only 11% of Americans think a financial institution will run better if it’s run by the federal government, according to a new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey.
Sixty-seven percent (67%) say the institution will not run better, and 22% aren’t sure.
Eighty percent (80%) of Republicans, 67% of unaffiliateds and 56% of Democrats do not believe the government will run it better.
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Researchers: Cyber spies break into govt computers
A cyber spy network based mainly in China has tapped into classified documents from government and private organizations in 103 countries, including the computers of Tibetan exiles, Canadian researchers said Saturday.
Once the hackers infiltrated the systems, they gained control using malware — software they install on the compromised computers — and sent and received data from them, the researchers said.
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Spy chiefs fear Chinese cyber attack
Intelligence chiefs have warned that China may have gained the capability to shut down Britain by crippling its telecoms and utilities
They have told ministers of their fears that equipment installed by Huawei, the Chinese telecoms giant, in BT’s new communications network could be used to halt critical services such as power, food and water supplies...
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China fury at US military report
Beijing has reacted angrily to a Pentagon report on China's military power, which claimed it was altering the military balance in Asia. A foreign ministry spokesman called it a ''gross distortion of the facts'', and urged an end to ''Cold War thinking''.
In its annual report to Congress, the Pentagon said China was developing ''disruptive'' technologies for nuclear, space and cyber warfare.
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Cybersecurity Chief Resigns
[HT:BM]
The government's coordinator for cybersecurity programs has quit, criticizing what he described as the National Security Agency's grip on cybersecurity. Rod Beckstrom, a former Silicon Valley entrepreneur, said in his resignation letter that the NSA's central role in cybersecurity is "a bad strategy" because it is important to have a civilian agency taking a key role in the issue. The NSA is part of the Department of Defense.
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Damascus set to receive MiG 31E planes
Damascus will take receipt of advanced MiG 31E fighter jets in the near future, the outgoing head of the Pentagon's Defense Intelligence Agency Lt.-Gen. Michael D. Maples told the Senate earlier this month.
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Defense Ministry eyes possible lift of US ban on foreign sales of F-22 fighter
The Defense Ministry will closely follow discussions in Congress next month over the United States' 2010 fiscal defense budget amid growing speculation that a ban on foreign sales of the stealth F-22 fighter jet may be lifted to keep the threatened production line alive.
Israel has in the past expressed interest in the fifth-generation aircraft manufactured by Lockheed Martin, but has been unable to place an order due to a congressional ban on foreign exports.
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'UAVs hit Gaza-bound weapons convoys'
Israel used unmanned aircraft in a series of attacks on Iranian convoys in Sudan which were attempting to smuggle long-range missiles into the Gaza Strip, according to a report in London's Sunday Times.
The Sunday report quoted Israeli defense forces as saying that the strikes, which were widely reported last week, were carried out by Israeli-made Hermes 450 drones.
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Nearly 70 tons of explosives smuggled into Gaza since IDF op
Shin Bet chief Yuval Diskin on Sunday briefed the cabinet on ongoing efforts to stem the smuggling of weapons into the Gaza Strip Dozens of tons of explosives have been smuggled into the Strip since Israel concluded its three-week offensive against the Hamas leadership in January, Diskin said.
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Yes, Hugo Cheated
Democracy: In a little-noted agency hearing, the CIA admitted that Venezuela's Hugo Chavez rigged his recall referendum in 2004.
So why does he still merit global recognition as a democratically elected leader? Anyone who steals an election has no claim to democracy.
But somehow there's an exception for Venezuela's President Hugo Chavez, who's still recognized as a "democratically elected" leader by the U.S. and others...
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Dodd's 'Democrat' Tightens His Grip
Hugo Chávez's threat last week to bring tanks to the streets if his side does not win key states in Sunday's gubernatorial elections is chilling. But it is not surprising. It is only the next logical step in what is the Venezuelan president's drive to seize all power and silence all dissent.
[the Dodd reference explained within]
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Obama, Charity, and 'Fairness'
Leave it to Barack Obama to justify a tax proposal that would significantly reduce the amounts going to charity -- on grounds the proposal is necessary for "fairness."
But the real reason is not "fairness." As Randy Shaw, the editor of BeyondChron (San Francisco's Alternative Online Daily), wrote earlier this week, there is a much different goal:
Even if we accept that charitable giving would decline by nearly $4 billion under Obama's plan, this critique addresses the wrong issue. The key question is whether the United States is better off having wealthy taxpayers pay more toward funding universal health care, or rather are free to give more billions to Harvard and Yale, more billions to elite art museums, and to otherwise spend tax dollars [?] in a way that does not address a pressing public priority.
And there you have it: the 'problem' is that taxpayers can benefit charities of their choice, rather than send the money to Washington to "address a pressing public priority" the government deems more important.
Shaw concluded that opponents of Obama's plan "miss the big picture" -- which is that
"Government, not private donors, should decide how tax dollars are allocated."
Implicit in this view is the conclusion that charitable contributions are actually the government's money -- and the government wants part of it back.
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"There are more instances of the abridgment of the freedom of the people by gradual and silent encroachments of those in power than by violent and sudden usurpations."
James Madison, "Father of the Constitution"
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Will A Weaker America Be A More ''Just'' America?
President Barack Obama has no intention of helping to grow the United States economy. On the contrary, he is doing everything a President can do to weaken it. I know that sounds harsh. Maybe it seems outrageously ''partisan.'' Maybe it just seems outrageous.
But after roughly ten weeks, Obama has consistently proposed ideas and plans (and in one case signing legislation) that will weaken the U.S. economy...
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'Make the World Safe for Tax Increases'
[meanwhile, in the MSM...]
You know what President Barack Obama's real economic problem is? He's not raising taxes enough.
On top of that he needs to raise taxes not only on the very wealthy but on almost everybody else. That is the opinion of Washington Post columnist E.J. Dionne, Jr.. Here is Dionne recommending that Obama raise taxes on nearly everyone:
"The debate on the budget is phony, the howling on deficits a charade. Few politicians want to acknowledge that if you really are concerned about long-term deficits, you have to support tax increases."
Somehow Dionne just can't seem to find anything in all the "stimulus" earmark pork that can be cut. Nope. Can't do it. The answer MUST be to raise taxes on almost everybody...
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"We don't have a trillion-dollar debt because we haven't taxed enough; we have a trillion-dollar debt because we spend too much."
-- Ronald Reagan
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30% Say Government Should Limit Pay for Athletes and Movie Stars
Thirty percent (30%) of Americans believe the government should make it illegal to pay movie stars and athletes more than $1 million per year.
There is a more support—but not much more--for capping the pay of corporate executives. Thirty-six percent (36%) say the federal government should make it illegal to pay any executive more than $1 million a year.
The majority (54%), however, disagree.
[Still, ~1 in 3. How is that possible in America? My answers:
> An education system that no longer teaches the founding principles of this country.
> A political party that promotes class envy and enslaves groups with government handouts.
> A media that ceaselessly promotes both.
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50M G20 Summit Is an Exercise in Colossal Vanity
International summits are little more than colossal exercises in political vanity. Full of hot air and meaningless photo opportunities they are designed purely to feed the self-importance of the global oligarchy.
Politicians like to see themselves as heroic figures grappling with the world’s problems but in reality are incapable of achieving anything beyond the misuse of public money...
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