Family Planning money…..under the bus!

Obama finally capitulates.

WASHINGTON – House Democrats are likely to jettison family planning funds for the low-income from an $825 billion economic stimulus bill, officials said late Monday, following a personal appeal from President Barack Obama at a time the administration is courting Republican critics of the legislation.
Several officials said a final decision was expected on Tuesday, coinciding with Obama’s scheduled visit to the Capitol for separate meetings with House and Senate Republicans.
The provision has emerged as a point of contention among Republicans, who criticize it as an example of wasteful spending that would neither create jobs nor otherwise improve the economy.
Under the provision, states no longer would be required to obtain federal permission to offer family planning services — including contraceptives — under Medicaid, the health program for the low-income.
via Officials: Family planning money may be dropped – Yahoo! News.

I must say, I cannot criticize Obama for this one. Because I feel abortion is murder, I am glad to see that Obama is telling Democrats in Congress to dump this. This is one that I will give him credit for. The Economy can be recovered without paying for abortions or handing out condoms. I find it quite shocking that the Democrats would use a economic situation like this, to further a murderous agenda.Which furthers my belief that the Democratic Party has become the communist party and an Anti-Christian, Anti-Life party.

(Via Memeorandum)

The G.O.P. grows a pair

It is about damned time.

President Barack Obama is coming to the Capitol this afternoon to curry favor with congressional Republicans. But it appears GOP leaders have already made up their minds to oppose his $825 billion stimulus plan.
House Republican Leader John A. Boehner and his No. 2, Whip Eric Cantor, told their rank-and-file members Tuesday morning during a closed-door meeting to oppose the bill when it comes to the floor Wednesday, according to an aide familiar with the discussion. Boehner told members that he’s voting against the stimulus, and Cantor told the assembled Republicans that there wasn’t any reason for them to support the measure, according to another person in the room. Cantor and his whip team are going to urge GOP members to oppose it.
via Boehner to GOP: Vote against stimulus – Patrick O’Connor and Jonathan Martin – Politico.com.

It is absolutely amazing that now, after the fact; that the G.O.P. bungled the most important election, that now the G.O.P. is going to grow a pair of stones. Gee, where was that bravery and fortitude during the election?

Of course, when you run a pseudo-Conservative and a self-proclaimed “War Hero”; What do you expect?

(via Memeorandum)

Liberal Democrat John Conyers starts Liberal Witch-Hunt against Bush Administration

This ought to be very interesting.

via Politico.com:

House Judiciary Committee Chairman John Conyers (D-Mich.) has subpoenaed Karl Rove, the former top political advisor to President George W. Bush, to question what Rove knows about “politicization” of the Justice Department.
The Senate Judiciary Committee had subpoenaed Rove during the last Congress, but relying on an executive privilege claim by Bush, Rove refused to appear.
Conyers had previously subpoenaed former White House Counsel Harriet Miers and Josh Bolten, Bush former White House chief of staff, seeking any information they had. Conyers is also seeking White House documents related to the firing of nine U.S. attorneys.
After the White House refused to comply with the subpoenas, and Miers refused to even appear before the committee to answer the subpoena, the House Judiciary Committee sued. A federal judge backed the committee in a major win for Conyers and House Democrats, but resolution of the case has been delayed by the changeover in administrations. President Obama has vowed to comply with congressional subpoenas.
“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way,” Conyers said.
Rove has until Feb. 2 to respond to the subpoena.

To me, this looks like a partisan witch-hunt. Because no proof that Karl Rove or anyone else at the White House knew about it. Just Liberal accusations.

Update: This is not to say there was no bad conduct at the Justice Department, Monica Goodling basically admitted that she made some very unethical decisions. But to attempt to tie it to Karl Rove and to George W. Bush by Proxy; is basically a stretch. I mean, because there is no proof of it, at all. All there is, are E-mails that have been parsed to extract Liberal talking points. I mean, do the Liberals really believe that Karl Rove, of all people, is going to sing like a bird? I mean, the man’s a Bush Loyalist. He is just not going to give the Democrats what they want.

The problem is, Obama is not going to enforce this at all:

Obama and Eric Holder, the administration’s nominee for attorney general, have both said they will not try to “criminalize policy differences” with the Bush administration, especially controversial policies like authorization by the Justice Department of waterboarding.

So, it looks like Mr. Conyers is going a have a bit of trouble of getting the support of the White House on this. However, there’s this:

But many prominent Democrats, including Speaker Nancy Pelosi (Calif.) and Sen. Patrick Leahy (Vt.), chairman of the Judiciary Committee, have said they want to pursue Bush administration officials whom they believe misled Congress.

There two ways one can look at this. It could be that Conyers will be on his own, because Pelosi won’t support it. However, on the other hand; Pelosi, Leahy and possibly other, like Wexler, might get behind this and pursue it and not have the support the White House; thereby creating a rift between Congress and the White House.

Either way, it will be an interesting story to follow, as you know, as well as I, that this will spark an outrage among the far right, especially amongst the Neo-Conservative media. Somehow, I just do not think that the Democrats in Congress want to risk a fierce blowback in the media from the Conservatives. Because any way you attempt to paint this, it will be viewed by some, as a partsian witch hunt. I just do not believe that the Democrats have the stomach for a backlash that would follow something of this nature.

More on the Spying on Journalists by the Bush Administration

Following up my posting from Last Night, More on the Spying of Journalists by the Bush Administration:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

and….

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

….and now to answer a question that some of you are possibly asking. Why I posting this here?

Ladies and Gents, I have one simple, but very direct answer. I am, and always will be for accountability in Government. If this is even remotely true. It would mean that the Bush Administration is even more corrupt that one though. I am sorry, but that transcends political parties, political ideology or affiliation. The President of the United States; is, in fact, the President of Everyone, he is elected by the people and he is the President of the people and not the Republican or Democratic Parties.

I make no apologies whatsoever, to any Conservatives or Republicans that read this Blog for posting these videos. It is my hope and prayer, that our newly elected Congress takes up this cause and leans on the justice department to do a full investigation into the possible crimes committed by the former administration.

Corruption cannot exist in Government, if it does, it begats more corruption. Somewhere the line must be drawn in the sand, somewhere someone within the halls of Congress someone must stand up and say this cannot be allowed to continue and go unpunished.

I hope the Congress, The President and the Justice Dept. does the right thing. It must investigate.

Fat Ted and Former Klansman Robert Byrd both have problems during the inaugural luncheon

Yeah, I wrote that damned headline, and I’m proud of it.

Via Fox News:

Sens. Ted Kennedy was taken to a hospital after suffering seizures during President Obama’s celebratory inaugural luncheon while Sen. Robert Byrd left early on Tuesday of his own accord, said his spokesman.
Kennedy, 76, suffered a series of convulsions that lasted a while. He was taken out on a wheelchair and had to have his legs lifted up to get him out of the room. He was loaded onto an ambulance and taken to Washington Hospital Center.
A spokeswoman at the hospital said Kennedy was awake and answering questions during an assessment. His wife Vicki and son, Rep. Patrick Kennedy, were with him.
Last summer, the Massachusetts Democrat was diagnosed with a life-threatening brain tumor. Kennedy was one of Obama’s earliest supporters and is credited with leading the pack of lawmakers who pushed Obama’s popularity.
Sen. John Kerry and wife, Teresa Heinz Kerry, and Vicki Kennedy helped Kennedy get into the reclining chair in which he was wheeled out. Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd also accompanied Kennedy to the ambulance.

I hope Teddy and Byrdy boy are going to be okay.

Mary Jo Kopechne, The Millions of unborn children murdered under Kennedy and the African-Americans lynched when Byrd was a Klansman were unavailable for a comment.

Others: Little Green Footballs, protein wisdom, Don Surber, Outside The Beltway

Yeah Right: Pelosi is open to Bush Administration prosecutions

I got just one thing to say about all this here…..

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi is receptive to the idea of prosecuting some Bush administration officials, while letting others who are accused of misdeeds leave office without prosecution, she told Chris Wallace in an interview on “FOX News Sunday.”
“I think you look at each item and see what is a violation of the law and do we even have a right to ignore it,” the California Democrat said. “And other things that are maybe time that is spent better looking to the future rather than to the past.”
Rep. John Conyers, chairman of the House Judiciary Committee, announced Friday he wants to set up a commission to look into whether the Bush administration broke the law by taking the nation to war against Iraq and instituting aggressive anti-terror initiatives. The Michigan Democrat called for an “independent criminal probe into whether any laws were broken in connection with these activities.” — via Pelosi Open to Prosecution of Bush Administration Officials | Political News – FOXNews.com.

I will believe it, when it see it. I think, if anything, Nancy Pelosi is trying possibly trying to garner support from the far left, so that the Congress rates will go up. There are good number of reasons why this will not happen:

The Political backlash towards Congress would be horrible. The Conservatives, especially the Podhoretz and Kristol funded Neo-Cons; would line up in royal opposition to any sort of a trial. They would bring out every piece of dirt on Obama; Rev. Wright, His Birth Certificate, his ties to Ayers, for the world to see….again.
President-Elect Obama’s ratings would plummet, many independents voted for Obama because they saw him as a break from the polices of George W. Bush. They did not vote him in to see a political partisan witch hunt trial. Which is what this would be perceived to be, by the American people.
Obama has clearly stated that he wants to take Nation forward, and not backward. In short, Obama wants to move on. He just does not need the drama in his first term.

So, my fellow Conservatives, while this might sound bad. I would simply dismiss it as baseless talk to get support.

(Why do I feel like I am doing a episode of talking points memo?)

Others: Michelle Malkin, Vodkapundit, Pat Dollard, ,and Riehl World View

(H/T Memeornadum)

Quote of the Day

The Coral Reef Alliance believes outgoing President George W. Bush has created his legacy as a President who has done more to protect the environment of the seas than any other President. Somehow, I doubt if former President Ronald Reagan would agree with their assessment.

Obama should, but most likely won't

Before I start this, let me simply say from the outset, that I am not a George W. Bush fan, nor will I ever be. I am not a part of the Conservative wing that believes that George W. Bush is some sort of hero. Having said all Paul Krugman and Rep. John Conyers have both written articles calling for Obama to fully investigate the actions of George W. Bush during his tenure as President.

First off Paul Krugman writes:

Last Sunday President-elect Barack Obama was asked whether he would seek an investigation of possible crimes by the Bush administration. “I don’t believe that anybody is above the law,” he responded, but “we need to look forward as opposed to looking backwards.”
I’m sorry, but if we don’t have an inquest into what happened during the Bush years — and nearly everyone has taken Mr. Obama’s remarks to mean that we won’t — this means that those who hold power are indeed above the law because they don’t face any consequences if they abuse their power.
Let’s be clear what we’re talking about here. It’s not just torture and illegal wiretapping, whose perpetrators claim, however implausibly, that they were patriots acting to defend the nation’s security. The fact is that the Bush administration’s abuses extended from environmental policy to voting rights. And most of the abuses involved using the power of government to reward political friends and punish political enemies.
At the Justice Department, for example, political appointees illegally reserved nonpolitical positions for “right-thinking Americans” — their term, not mine — and there’s strong evidence that officials used their positions both to undermine the protection of minority voting rights and to persecute Democratic politicians.
The hiring process at Justice echoed the hiring process during the occupation of Iraq — an occupation whose success was supposedly essential to national security — in which applicants were judged by their politics, their personal loyalty to President Bush and, according to some reports, by their views on Roe v. Wade, rather than by their ability to do the job.
Speaking of Iraq, let’s also not forget that country’s failed reconstruction: the Bush administration handed billions of dollars in no-bid contracts to politically connected companies, companies that then failed to deliver. And why should they have bothered to do their jobs? Any government official who tried to enforce accountability on, say, Halliburton quickly found his or her career derailed.
There’s much, much more. By my count, at least six important government agencies experienced major scandals over the past eight years — in most cases, scandals that were never properly investigated. And then there was the biggest scandal of all: Does anyone seriously doubt that the Bush administration deliberately misled the nation into invading Iraq?
Why, then, shouldn’t we have an official inquiry into abuses during the Bush years?

The answer to this question is very simple. Obama simply does not want the political firestorm. As much as it is great thing to see an African-American man for President, I think it would be counter-productive to Obama’s term in office to do something like this. Because you just know; that the Neo-Conservative political machine would swing into action against Obama, if he did try and do something like this. I mean, I might have many reservations about Neo-Conservatives, but their organizational and fund raising abilities is not one of them. If Obama went for a full blown investigation against the Bush Administration, the Podhoretz and Kristol funded minions would be out in full force.

So, while the idea of a full blown investigation with charges being filed is a noble idea; I just highly doubt that it will ever materialize. Obama just does not want to be viewed as a vengeful partisan President.

John Conyers writes basically the same thing, and I can understand his feelings. But again, what is very important; is how this sort of thing will be perceived by the rest of America. Would be it perceived as justice, or would it perceived as a partisan witch hunt? Sure, if your a partisan or a liberal ideologue it would be viewed as justified, but what about those who are not? What they think; matters greatly.

One thing that all Democrats and all Liberal-minded people must remember is, that not all of America is of a Liberal mindset. Just because Congress is of a Liberal majority, does not mean that all of America is. Some just voted for Obama, because he represented a change from George W. Bush, not because they wanted to see a Liberal witch hunt trial.

Others: The Moderate Voice, JustOneMinute, The Huffington Post, Los Angeles Times, No More Mister Nice Blog, Washington Monthly, Washington Post, Matthew Yglesias, Right Wing News, The Seminal, Democrats.com, The Sideshow, Comments from Left Field, The Note, The Immoral Minority, Riehl World View, Gateway Pundit, American Street, Hullabaloo, Seeing the Forest and The Impolitic

(via Memeorandum)

The Obligatory Hillary Clinton "intervened in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband's foundation" Posting

Seriously, why is anyone even remotely suprised by this?

Via AP:

Secretary of State appointee Hillary Rodham Clinton intervened at least six times in government issues directly affecting companies and others that later contributed to her husband’s foundation, an Associated Press review of her official correspondence found.
The overlap of names on former President Bill Clinton’s foundation donor list and business interests whose issues she championed raises new questions about potential ethics conflicts between her official actions and her husband’s fundraising. The AP obtained three of the senator’s government letters under the Freedom of Information Act.
Clinton was to begin her confirmation hearing Tuesday before the Senate Foreign Relations Committee.
Under an agreement with President-elect Barack Obama, Bill Clinton recently released the names of donors to his foundation, a nonprofit that has raised at least $492 million — including millions from foreign governments — to fund his library in Little Rock, Ark., and charitable efforts worldwide on such issues as AIDS, poverty and climate change.
The letters and donations involve pharmaceutical companies and telecommunications and energy interests. An aide to the senator said she made no secret of her involvement in many of the issues. Bill Clinton’s foundation declined to say when it received the donations or precisely how much was contributed.

I mean, after all, we are talking the Clinton’s here. Democratic ties to corruption and lobbyists; especially among the Clinton’s and other well-heeled Democratic figures goes all the way back the Kennedy era. I know, Obama promised change, and with Hillary we did not get it. One must remember though, if she’s not seated, Obama could lose his popularity among Hillary’s supporters.

Still it would be quite juvenile of me not to observe that this does represent a “walk back” of the mantra of hope and change that Obama promised during the campaign. The Clinton defeat was supposed to represent a defeat of the old Clinton guard within the Democratic Party. So much for that little bit of drama. 🙄

I’ve written it here a great number of times, but I believe it to be quite true, it is going to be a very interesting four to eight years in politics. 😀

Others: The Moderate Voice, CNN, NO QUARTER, Bloomberg, Wall Street Journal, NPR, Booman Tribune, Reuters, protein wisdom, CBS News, Associated Press, JammieWearingFool and The Politico

(via Memeornadum)

Toyota is feeling the pinch too.

So much for that stupid Neo-Con line saying that the slump in auto sales is the automakers fault.

Via the New York Times:

TOKYO — Toyota Motor will idle its plants in Japan for 11 days in February and March to reduce output in the face of steeply declining global vehicle sales, the company said Tuesday.
The Japanese auto giant said the suspension would affect production at all 12 of its directly operated domestic plants, which include four vehicle assembly plants and also factories that make transmissions, engines and other parts. The closings are in addition to a three-day shutdown this month at these plants that Toyota had already announced.
The move is unusual for a company that just a few months ago seemed unable to keep up with voracious global demand for its fuel-efficient vehicles. But even strong players like Toyota have failed to escape the drastic slowdown in the global auto industry.
The company said it would idle the plants to reduce stocks of unsold vehicles amid a relentless slide in sales, particularly in the United States, its biggest market. Last month, Toyota’s sales there dropped 37 percent, a larger decline than at its struggling American rivals General Motors and Ford.
Plunging sales and a stronger Japanese yen, which reduces the yen value of overseas profits, forced Toyota to forecast last month its first annual loss in 70 years at its vehicle-making operations.
Toyota did not say how many vehicles would be affected by the suspension announced Tuesday. The company said its four domestic assembly plants produced 1.5 million vehicles in 2007, the most recent year for which the company has figures. Toyota-brand cars are also made by other companies in the Toyota group.
The company had already announced that it would shut down truck production at two United States plants for three months
Its American rivals — General Motors, Ford Motor and Chrysler — have also idled plants across North America in response to the slowdown.

For once, I am in agreement with a Liberal, and yes, it is the same knuckle-headed liberal that insulted Conservatives. Hey, I am one that praises when it’s due and bitches when it’s due too; At least I’m fair. 😉 😀 😛

Matthew Yglesias Weighs in:

This is the conceptual problem with efforts to “save” the car industry through bailouts or union busting or whatever you like. One assumes demand for cars will get higher than it is right now, but the industry has a whole just has more capacity to build cars than there is demand for new cars. Which is fine. When you look across the developed world and try to take stock of the medium- and long-run problems facing the OECD nations there’s just no way you’re going to reach the conclusion that an automobile shortage is a big concern. But obviously it’s not fine for the companies that make cars. There’s going to be a need for some shrinkage.

Yeah, I know, most likely some of the Conservatives who are basically scraping my blog for content are going to try and deride me as a fake conservative, because I stick up for the middle class and because I happen to be the son of retired General Motors Worker and U.A.W. member. Well, I got two words; screw you and the rest of the asshole Madison Ave. Conservatives. 😡

Anyhow, I happen to agree with Matthew here, I live here in the Detroit Area. If the auto industry dies, so does this area. That will cause my parents to suffer, they need the health insurance, as they are both diabetic and the amount of medications that they take is staggering. Anyhow, this article above disproves and basically strikes down the “Meme” that was going around in the Conservative Blogosphere that the issues with the auto industry was the fault of the automakers. Which I totally dismissed as abject bullshit of the highest order. It was the fault of President Clinton for putting pressure on the loan companies to give those toxic subprime loans to those who were considered high risk. That is what started this whole thing. Of course, equal blame can be given to the Republican Congress of 2003 for not changing the laws, after all, they were warned by the Bush White House to do something; and they did nothing at all.

Best thing they could do, was have a hearing, of which the CEO of Freddie Mac pulled the race card, and congress backed off. So, all the blaming of the Auto Companies was nothing more than a feeble attempt by the Republicans at scapegoating the wrong damned people.

Here’s hoping that Japan’s auto industry totally collapses and people, both American and otherwise, have to buy American products, for a change!