This is just too awesome!
Wow! I love it when smart people to stuff like that…
(H/T Lew Rockwell)
Tag: Government
Nothing ever changes in Washington D.C.
Heh.
The Obama administration, siding with former President George W. Bush, is trying to kill a lawsuit that seeks to recover what could be millions of missing White House e-mails.
Two advocacy groups suing the Executive Office of the President say that large amounts of White House e-mail documenting Bush’s eight years in office may still be missing, and that the government must undertake an extensive recovery effort. They expressed disappointment that Obama’s Justice Department is continuing the Bush administration’s bid to get the lawsuits dismissed.
During its first term, the Bush White House failed to install electronic record-keeping for e-mail when it switched to a new system, resulting in millions of messages that could not be found.
The Bush White House discovered the problem in 2005 and rejected a proposed solution.
Hey far lefty liberals! How’s that Hope and Change working out for ya eh? 😆 🙄
Too funny for words. What the Liberals get for putting all thier Faith and trust into a magic moonbat.
Others: Newshoggers.com, Flopping Aces
The Southern Avenger on "Crisis-Mongering"
How President Obama’s haste and hysterics in passing his stimulus to alleviate the economic crisis is similar to Bush’s theatrics in addressing the terror “crisis.”
Manufacturing Suffers
Some more grim news… 🙁
Via the Economist:
$0.00, not counting fuel and handling: that is the cheapest quote right now if you want to ship a container from southern China to Europe. Back in the summer of 2007 the shipper would have charged $1,400. Half-empty freighters are just one sign of a worldwide collapse in manufacturing. In Germany December’s machine-tool orders were 40% lower than a year earlier. Half of China’s 9,000 or so toy exporters have gone bust. Taiwan’s shipments of notebook computers fell by a third in the month of January. The number of cars being assembled in America was 60% below January 2008.
The destructive global power of the financial crisis became clear last year. The immensity of the manufacturing crisis is still sinking in, largely because it is seen in national terms—indeed, often nationalistic ones. In fact manufacturing is also caught up in a global whirlwind.
Industrial production fell in the latest three months by 3.6% and 4.4% respectively in America and Britain (equivalent to annual declines of 13.8% and 16.4%). Some locals blame that on Wall Street and the City. But the collapse is much worse in countries more dependent on manufacturing exports, which have come to rely on consumers in debtor countries. Germany’s industrial production in the fourth quarter fell by 6.8%; Taiwan’s by 21.7%; Japan’s by 12%—which helps to explain why GDP is falling even faster there than it did in the early 1990s (see article). Industrial production is volatile, but the world has not seen a contraction like this since the first oil shock in the 1970s—and even that was not so widespread. Industry is collapsing in eastern Europe, as it is in Brazil, Malaysia and Turkey. Thousands of factories in southern China are now abandoned. Their workers went home to the countryside for the new year in January. Millions never came back (see article).
This is what happens when you create an economic bubble, by loosening up regulations to sell mortgages to those who cannot afford them. The whole world suffers. Our American companies suffer, the World manufacturing sector suffers. It is a domino effect. The problem is, that the United States is going about this all wrong. Instead of changing the way our economic system works. They are simply trying to reinflate the broken bubble. It is like trying to tape up a busted air ballon and trying to put air back into it again. It works for a while, but ends up breaking again.
Rat in the mouse house?
Well, something like that:
You’ve heard a lot about the astonishing spending in the $787 billion economic stimulus bill, signed into law this week by President Barack Obama. But you probably haven’t heard about a provision in the bill that threatens to politicize the way allegations of fraud and corruption are investigated — or not investigated — throughout the federal government.
Photographers take pictures of the economic stimulus bill after President Barack Obama signed the document during a ceremony at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science in Denver, Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009. (AP Photo/Gerald Herbert)
The provision, which attracted virtually no attention in the debate over the 1,073-page stimulus bill, creates something called the Recovery Accountability and Transparency Board — the RAT Board, as it’s known by the few insiders who are aware of it. The board would oversee the in-house watchdogs, known as inspectors general, whose job is to independently investigate allegations of wrongdoing at various federal agencies, without fear of interference by political appointees or the White House.
In the name of accountability and transparency, Congress has given the RAT Board the authority to ask “that an inspector general conduct or refrain from conducting an audit or investigation.” If the inspector general doesn’t want to follow the wishes of the RAT Board, he’ll have to write a report explaining his decision to the board, as well as to the head of his agency (from whom he is supposedly independent) and to Congress. In the end, a determined inspector general can probably get his way, but only after jumping through bureaucratic hoops that will inevitably make him hesitate to go forward.
When Iowa Republican Sen. Charles Grassley, a longtime champion of inspectors general, read the words “conduct or refrain from conducting,” alarm bells went off. The language means that the board — whose chairman will be appointed by the president — can reach deep inside a federal agency and tell an inspector general to lay off some particularly sensitive subject. Or, conversely, it can tell the inspector general to go after a tempting political target.
via The RAT hiding deep inside the stimulus bill – www.dcexaminer.com.
Sounds like Communism to me. One must report the fuhrer before he can exercise his authority. Hope and change? I hardly think so. More like control and tyranny.
Others: JustOneMinute, Riehl World View, Hot Air, protein wisdom, Wizbang, Cold Fury and Sister Toldjah
uh-oh – Nearly One-Forth of the House got donations from corrupt firm connected to Murtha
I suspect there will be some sort of fallout from this here:
More than 100 House members secured earmarks in a major spending bill for clients of a single lobbying firm — The PMA Group — known for its close ties to John P. Murtha , the congressman in charge of Pentagon appropriations.
“It shows you how good they were,” said Keith Ashdown, chief investigator at the watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense. “The sheer coordination of that would take an army to finish.”
PMA’s offices have been raided, and the firm closed its political action committee last week amid reports that the FBI is investigating possibly illegal campaign contributions to Murtha and other lawmakers.
No matter what the outcome of the federal investigation, PMA’s earmark success illustrates how a well-connected lobbying firm operates on Capitol Hill. And earmark accountability rules imposed by the Democrats in 2007 make it possible to see how extensively PMA worked the Hill for its clients.
In the spending bill managed by Murtha, the fiscal 2008 Defense appropriation, 104 House members got earmarks for projects sought by PMA clients, according to Congressional Quarterly’s analysis of a database constructed by Ashdown’s group.
Those House members, plus a handful of senators, combined to route nearly $300 million in public money to clients of PMA through that one law (PL 110-116).
And when the lawmakers were in need — as they all are to finance their campaigns — PMA came through for them.
According to CQ MoneyLine, the same House members who took responsibility for PMA’s earmarks in that spending bill have, since 2001, accepted a cumulative $1,815,138 in campaign contributions from PMA’s political action committee and employees of the firm.
via CQ Politics | Firm with Murtha Ties Got Earmarks From Nearly One-Fourth of House.
I will simply say this, that ALL of the members of the House and Senate involved with this should resign immediately. This is a disgrace to the political system and should be dealt with harshly; that goes for Democrats AND Republicans.
Update: Here’s the list of people with their hands in the cookie jar:
Bold = Member Did Not Receive PMA Money between 2001 and 2008
* = No Longer Serving in the House
# = Member of House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee in the 110th Congress
Democrats
| Requesting Member | State | $ Secured Solo | $ Secured w/Others | Total Credited | PMA campaign $ since 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Peter J. Visclosky# | Indiana | $21,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $23,800,000 | $219,000 |
| John P. Murtha# | Pennsylvania | $31,705,000 | $2,400,000 | $34,105,000 | $143,600 |
| James P. Moran# | Virginia | $8,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,800,000 | $125,250 |
| Norm Dicks# | Washington | $11,330,000 | $800,000 | $12,130,000 | $91,600 |
| Bill Pascrell Jr. | New Jersey | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $73,200 | |
| Mike Doyle | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $69,400 | |
| Loretta Sanchez | California | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $60,118 | |
| Tim Holden | Pennsylvania | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $57,275 | |
| Tim Ryan | Ohio | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $54,250 | |
| Michael E. Capuano | Massachusetts | $2,000,000 | $800,000 | $2,800,000 | $54,000 |
| Chet Edwards | Texas | $6,040,000 | $6,040,000 | $48,734 | |
| Silvestre Reyes | Texas | $800,000 | $800,000 | $42,300 | |
| Christopher Carney | Pennsylvania | $5,900,000 | $5,900,000 | $38,500 | |
| Paul E. Kanjorski | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $3,200,000 | $4,800,000 | $37,150 |
| Marcy Kaptur# | Ohio | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $34,500 | |
| Carolyn McCarthy | New York | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $31,500 | |
| Patrick J. Murphy | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $29,250 | |
| Allyson Y. Schwartz | Pennsylvania | $800,000 | $800,000 | $25,000 | |
| Jason Altmire | Pennsylvania | $2,600,000 | $2,600,000 | $24,500 | |
| Brad Sherman | California | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $15,500 | |
| Susan A. Davis | California | $800,000 | $800,000 | $13,750 | |
| Allen Boyd# | Florida | $6,400,000 | $2,200,000 | $8,600,000 | $12,000 |
| Sanford D. Bishop Jr.# | Georgia | $1,200,000 | $2,400,000 | $3,600,000 | $10,500 |
| Jane Harman | California | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,500 | |
| Jim Matheson | Utah | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $10,000 | |
| Steve Israel | New York | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $8,500 | |
| Jerrold Nadler | New York | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $8,500 | |
| Joe Sestak | Pennsylvania | $1,280,000 | $1,280,000 | $8,500 | |
| Jim Marshall | Georgia | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $7,000 | |
| Mark Udall* | Colorado | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $6,533 | |
| Michael H. Michaud | Maine | $800,000 | $800,000 | $6,500 | |
| Tom Allen* | Maine | $1,800,000 | $1,800,000 | $5,750 | |
| Danny K. Davis | Illinois | $295,000 | $295,000 | $5,500 | |
| Robert E. Andrews | New Jersey | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 | $5,000 | |
| Gene Taylor | Mississippi | $800,000 | $800,000 | $4,750 | |
| Nancy Pelosi | California | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $4,500 | |
| David E. Price | North Carolina | $800,000 | $800,000 | $4,000 | |
| Steven R. Rothman# | New Jersey | $800,000 | $2,400,000 | $3,200,000 | $4,000 |
| Brian Higgins | New York | $3,400,000 | $3,400,000 | $3,000 | |
| Brad Miller | North Carolina | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,250 | |
| Brad Ellsworth | Indiana | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Ed Perlmutter | Colorado | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Phil Hare | Illinois | $6,800,000 | $6,800,000 | $1,500 | |
| Martin Meehan* | Massachusetts | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $1,500 | |
| Howard L. Berman | California | $800,000 | $800,000 | $1,000 | |
| Carolyn B. Maloney | New York | $3,200,000 | $3,200,000 | $1,000 | |
| Ben Chandler | Kentucky | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $250 | |
| Shelley Berkley | Nevada | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Dan Boren | Oklahoma | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | ||
| Leonard L. Boswell | Iowa | $1,650,000 | $1,650,000 | ||
| Baron P. Hill | Indiana | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | ||
| Gwen Moore | Wisconsin | $400,000 | $400,000 | ||
| Christopher S. Murphy | Connecticut | $400,000 | $400,000 | ||
| Mike Thompson | California | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 |
Republicans
| Requesting Member | State | $ Secured Solo | $ Secured w/Others | Total Credited | PMA campaign $ since 2001 |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| David L. Hobson*# | Ohio | $3,500,000 | $3,500,000 | $70,050 | |
| Jerry Lewis | California | $4,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $8,000,000 | $34,649 |
| Rodney Frelinghuysen# | New Jersey | $2,500,000 | $4,800,000 | $7,300,000 | $29,129 |
| Ander Crenshaw | Florida | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $27,300 | |
| Zach Wamp | Tennessee | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $23,900 | |
| Todd Tiahrt# | Kansas | $5,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $7,000,000 | $21,250 |
| Tom Reynolds* | New York | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $12,000 | |
| Jack Kingston# | Georgia | $4,000,000 | $2,400,000 | $6,400,000 | $11,500 |
| H. James Saxton* | New Jersey | $2,000,000 | $1,500,000 | $3,500,000 | $11,500 |
| Jo Ann Emerson | Missouri | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $11,000 | |
| C.W. Bill Young# | Florida | $16,000,000 | $4,400,000 | $20,400,000 | $10,750 |
| Howard P. “Buck” McKeon | California | $1,000,000 | $4,000,000 | $5,000,000 | $9,500 |
| Heather Wilson* | New Mexico | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 | $9,000 | |
| Jim Walsh* | New York | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $8,500 | |
| Mark Steven Kirk | Illinois | $390,000 | $390,000 | $7,750 | |
| Todd Akin | Missouri | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $7,500 | |
| Ray LaHood* | Illinois | $7,800,000 | $7,800,000 | $7,450 | |
| Jeff Miller | Florida | $1,600,000 | $2,200,000 | $3,800,000 | $7,000 |
| Duncan Hunter* | California | $15,200,000 | $15,200,000 | $6,500 | |
| Chris Cannon* | Utah | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $6,000 | |
| Kay Granger | Texas | $3,600,000 | $3,600,000 | $6,000 | |
| Joe Knollenberg* | Michigan | $2,800,000 | $2,800,000 | $6,000 | |
| David Dreier | California | $3,000,000 | $3,000,000 | $5,000 | |
| Jim Gerlach | Pennsylvania | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $4,500 | |
| Tom Latham | Iowa | $5,150,000 | $5,150,000 | $4,500 | |
| Joe L. Barton | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $4,000 | |
| J. Dennis Hastert* | Illinois | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $3,500 | |
| Roscoe G. Bartlett | Maryland | $400,000 | $400,000 | $3,000 | |
| Peter Hoekstra | Michigan | $3,700,000 | $3,700,000 | $2,500 | |
| Howard Coble | North Carolina | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $2,000 | |
| John T. Doolittle* | California | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $2,000 | |
| Kenny Hulshof* | Missouri | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Steve Pearce* | New Mexico | $6,500,000 | $6,500,000 | $2,000 | |
| Bill Shuster | Pennsylvania | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $2,000 | |
| Frank A. LoBiondo | New Jersey | $1,500,000 | $1,500,000 | $1,500 | |
| Rob Bishop | Utah | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Geoff Davis | Kentucky | $6,800,000 | $6,800,000 | $1,000 | |
| Virgil H. Goode Jr.* | Virginia | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Doug Lamborn | Colorado | $1,000,000 | $1,000,000 | $1,000 | |
| Kenny Marchant | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $1,000 | |
| Christopher Shays* | Connecticut | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $1,000 | |
| John Sullivan | Oklahoma | $2,000,000 | $2,000,000 | $1,000 | |
| Tom Tancredo* | Colorado | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | $1,000 | |
| Michael C. Burgess | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | $500 | |
| Ralph M. Hall | Texas | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Doc Hastings | Washington | $1,600,000 | $1,600,000 | ||
| Sam Johnson | Texas | $1,200,000 | $1,200,000 | ||
| Todd R. Platts | Pennsylvania | $4,400,000 | $4,400,000 | ||
| Rick Renzi* | Arizona | $2,400,000 | $2,400,000 | ||
| Pete Sessions | Texas | $1,600,000 | $4,800,000 | $6,400,000 |
Wow. Can’t wait for the fallout.
Others: The Swamp, NPR, Outside The Beltway, The Washington Independent, Liberty Street, Right Wing Nut House, Betsy’s Page, Hot Air, Wizbang, Taegan Goddard’s …, Riehl World View, Sister Toldjah, Michelle Malkin and QandO
Obama signs the Generational Theft Act and Promises Another, Markets Tank…
I figured this was coming:
The Story:
President Obama has not ruled out a second stimulus package, his press secretary, Robert Gibbs, said on Tuesday, just before Mr. Obama signed his $787 billion recovery package into law with a statement that it would “set our economy on a firmer foundation.”
The president said he would not pretend “that today marks the end of our economic problems.”
“Nor does it constitute all of what we have to do to turn our economy around,” Mr. Obama said at the signing ceremony in the Denver Museum of Nature and Science. “But today does mark the beginning of the end, the beginning of what we need to do to create jobs for Americans scrambling in the way of playoffs.”
Mr. Gibbs, speaking to reporters aboard Air Force One on the way to Denver, said, “I think the president is going to do what’s necessary to grow this economy.” While “there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package,” he added, “I wouldn’t foreclose it.”
Mr. Obama began the first leg of a two-day trip, using the museum ceremony to spotlight the bill’s clean-energy provisions. The president will also visit Phoenix, where he will unveil his new housing plan on Wednesday.
After a bruising legislative battle on the stimulus bill, which drew only three supporting votes from Republicans in the Senate and none in the House, the White House is trying to recapture the debate over the economy. Mr. Obama’s message is that the bill will create or save 3.5 million jobs over the next two years.
While the bill has been criticized by conservatives as bloated with pork-barrel spending, it has also been criticized by the left as too tepid and not bold enough to jumpstart the economy. Mr. Gibbs’s remarks on the plane seemed to echo that concern.
In describing the package, the press secretary called it “a strong start towards economic viability” and “the beginning of getting our economy back on track.”
via Signing Stimulus Bill, Obama Does Not Rule Out Another – NYTimes.com.
I figured Obama would do this, sign one porkus bill into law and say, “This is not the end, but just the beginning of the pork!”
Meanwhile, the markets basically tanked, even more so than last week: (Via the New York Times)
From Hong Kong to eastern Europe to Wall Street, financial gloom was everywhere on Tuesday.
Stock markets around the world staggered lower. In New York, the Dow fell more than 3 percent, coming within sight of its worst levels since the credit crisis erupted. Financial shares were battered. And rattled investors clamored to buy rainy-day investments like gold and Treasury debt.
It was a global wave of selling spurred by rising worries about how banks, automakers — entire countries — would fare in a deepening global downturn.
“Nobody believes it’s going get better yet,” said Howard Silverblatt, senior index analyst at Standard & Poor’s. “Do you see that light at the end of the tunnel? Any kind of light? Right now, it’s not there yet.”
At the close, the Dow Jones industrial average was down 297.81 points or 3.7 percent to 7,552.29 points as losses in General Motors, Bank of America and American Express dragged the blue chips lower. The only Dow stock in positive territory was Wal-Mart, which rose after reporting better-than-expected profits.
“If we get substantially below 800 then look out below,” said Marc Groz, chief investment officer at Topos, a risk-advisory firm in Greenwich, Conn.
The broader Standard & Poor’s 500-stock index slid 3.7 percent to drop below 800, which analysts said was an important trading threshold.
Investors know what this is, it is basically nationalization of our Economy, our banks, everything. They are just not going to invest money in a Government owned banking system. I believe this drop is just the beginning. Wait till it totally collapses and the world is thrust into chaos. It will be an interesting time, indeed.
Quote of the Day
Since 1982, the United States has run $5.7 trillion in trade deficits in manufactured goods, and $2.1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and automobiles. In the Bush years alone, the United States ran more than $1 trillion in trade deficits in auto parts, trucks and cars.
These statistics, these realities — factories closing in the United States, manufacturing jobs being outsourced in the millions to China and Asia, enormous, endless trade deficits in goods — testify to a painful truth: America is a receding and declining world power.
And in dealing with this systemic crisis, Obama’s stimulus package is as irrelevant as were the Bush tax cuts.
How do we correct those “trade-related imbalances” of which Volcker spoke? We must export more and import less, save more and spend less, produce more and consume less. We need to emulate the ants and behave less like the grasshoppers of summer.
But how do you tell that to two generations of Americans who have been raised in an era of entitlement?
America needs an Industrial Policy.
But how do you tell that to Americans indoctrinated in the hoary myth that Reed Smoot and Willis Hawley caused the Great Depression and anything that sounds like America First risks a rerun of the 1930s?
Faux Conservative Arlan Spector "Republicans Support Stimulus, Don't Want 'Fingerprints' On It"
Oh Please, this is about the lamest damn thing ever….
Sen. Arlen Specter (R-PA), who broke with his party to support President Obama’s stimulus package last week, said before the final vote Friday that more of his colleagues would have joined were they not afraid of the political consequences.
“When I came back to the cloak room after coming to the agreement a week ago today,” said Specter, “one of my colleagues said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ My Republican colleague said, ‘Arlen, I’m proud of you.’ I said, ‘Are you going to vote with me?’ And he said, ‘No, I might have a primary.’ And I said, ‘Well, you know very well I’m going to have a primary.'”
Specter, along with centrist Maine Republican Senators Susan Collins and Olympia Snowe, joined with Democrats last week to move the stimulus bill forward. Specter said he doubted there would be any more Republican votes than those three Friday night.
“I think there are a lot of people in the Republican caucus who are glad to see this action taken without their fingerprints, without their participation,” he said.
Specter was asked, How many of your colleagues?
“I think a sizable number,” he said. “I think a good part of the caucus agrees with the person I quoted, but I wouldn’t want to begin to speculate on numbers.”
via HuffPo Says: Republicans Support Stimulus, Don’t Want ‘Fingerprints’ On It.
Name one, Arlan, name just one. I dare you. Truth is, there were no other supporters, nobody self-loving Republican, Conservative or Libertarian would ever vote for a bill of this sort. This bill is nothing more than watered down, and in some places; not-so-watered down communism!
I find it absolutely amazing that Sen. Arlan Specter would stoop to outright lying about something as paramount as this bill.
Others: Gateway Pundit
The Stimulus Package explained…
Over at The Big Picture:
Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment?
A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers.Q. Where will the government get this money?
A. From taxpayers.Q. So the government is giving me back my own money?
A. No, they are borrowing it from China. Your children are expected to repay the Chinese.Q. What is the purpose of this payment?
A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy.Q. But isn’t that stimulating the economy of China ?
A. Shut up.
Ha! Too Funny….. 😆
Feeling stimulated yet? 😛 😀 😉
(via Freedom’s Phoenix)
