One of the sties I freqeuent is www.xkcd.com, and I found this cartoon especially interesting.
While I’m in no way agreeing with all the bonuses, I just found it interesting how the media coerces us into seeing something totally different.
– Mr Knowledge
On a side note, Mr. Knowledge is back and willing to continue his posting habits.
March 26, 2009
Bachmann bill would ban global currency
Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-MN) has introduced legislation that would “bar the dollar from being replace by any foreign currency.” A statement from Bachmann’s website:
“Yesterday, during a Financial Services Committee hearing, I asked Secretary Geithner if he would denounce efforts to move towards a global currency and he answered unequivocally that he would,” said Bachmann. “And President Obama gave the nation the same assurances. But just a day later, Secretary Geithner has left the option on the table. I want to know which it is. The American people deserve to know.”
On Monday, Geithner and Bernanke both rejected the idea of a global currency in Congressional testimony. But in remarks to the Council on Foreign Relations yesterday, Geithner indicated he was open to the idea.
Now, Obama wants even more power. We are losing more and more of our democracy every time he proposes one of his lidicrous plans! Can’t anyone stop him?
U.S. Seeks Expanded Power to Seize Firms
Goal Is to Limit Risk to Broader Economy
By Binyamin Appelbaum and David Cho
Washington Post Staff Writers
Tuesday, March 24, 2009; A01
The Obama administration is considering asking Congress to give the Treasury secretary unprecedented powers to initiate the seizure of non-bank financial companies, such as large insurers, investment firms and hedge funds, whose collapse would damage the broader economy, according to an administration document.
The government at present has the authority to seize only banks.
Giving the Treasury secretary authority over a broader range of companies would mark a significant shift from the existing model of financial regulation, which relies on independent agencies that are shielded from the political process. The Treasury secretary, a member of the president’s Cabinet, would exercise the new powers in consultation with the White House, the Federal Reserve and other regulators, according to the document.
The administration plans to send legislation to Capitol Hill this week. Sources cautioned that the details, including the Treasury’s role, are still in flux.
Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner is set to argue for the new powers at a hearing today on Capitol Hill about the furor over bonuses paid to executives at American International Group, which the government has propped up with about $180 billion in federal aid. Administration officials have said that the proposed authority would have allowed them to seize AIG last fall and wind down its operations at less cost to taxpayers.
The administration’s proposal contains two pieces. First, it would empower a government agency to take on the new role of systemic risk regulator with broad oversight of any and all financial firms whose failure could disrupt the broader economy. The Federal Reserve is widely considered to be the leading candidate for this assignment. But some critics warn that this could conflict with the Fed’s other responsibilities, particularly its control over monetary policy.
http://www.mcclatchydc.com/251/story/64577.html
The American government is planning to buy condoms from the Chinese rather than an American dealer which is putting 300 Americans out of work.
Is this another case of Obama’s administration saying, “Screw you” to America?
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/18/pelosi-tells-illegal-immigrants-work-site-raids-american/
Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American
The speaker of the House told a group of both legal and illegal immigrants recently that enforcement of immigration laws in the United States is “un-American.”
http://www.examiner.com/x-268-Right-Side-Politics-Examiner~y2009m3d17-Obama-Received-a-101332-Bonus-from-AIG
So, President Obama received huge donations from AIG and is now returning the “favor” to AIG.
Guess it is politics as usual!
http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090318/ap_on_re_ca/canada_bush_first_speech_20
Bush says it’s ‘essential’ to help Obama
CALGARY, Alberta – Former President George W. Bush, making his first public speech since leaving office in January, says he wants Barack Obama to succeed and that it’s “essential” to support the new leader.
Bush declined to critique the Obama administration in Tuesday’s speech, saying the new president has enough critics and that he “deserves my silence.”
Former Vice President Dick Cheney has said that Obama’s decisions threatened America’s safety. Conservative talk-show host Rush Limbaugh has said he hoped Obama would fail.
“I love my country a lot more than I love politics,” Bush said. “I think it is essential that he be helped in office.”
Bush also said he plans to write a book that will ask people to consider what they would do if they had to protect the United States as president. “It’s going to be (about) the 12 toughest decisions I had to make,” he said.
“I want people to understand what it was like to sit in the Oval Office and have them come in and say we have captured Khalid Sheik Mohammed, the mastermind of the Sept. 11 attacks, the alleged killer of a guy named Danny Pearl because he was simply Jewish, and we think we have information on further attacks on the United States,” Bush said.
Bush didn’t specify what the 12 hardest decisions were but said Iraq is better off without Saddam Hussein in power.
The invitation-only event titled a “Conversation with George W. Bush” attracted close to 2,000 guests who paid $3,100 per table. Bush received two standing ovations from the predominantly business crowd.
About 200 protested outside the event; four of them were arrested. Some protesters threw shoes at an effigy of Bush, a reference to the Iraqi journalist who tossed his shoes at the former president during a December news conference in Baghdad.
“He shouldn’t be able to go anywhere in the world and just present himself as a private citizen,” protest organizer Peggy Askin said. “We do not have any use for bringing war criminals into this country. It’s an affront.”
While Bush is unpopular in Canada, he is less so in oil-rich Alberta, the country’s most conservative province and one sometimes called the Texas of the north.
“This is my maiden voyage. My first speech since I was the president of the United States and I couldn’t think of a better place to give it than Calgary, Canada,” Bush said.
The event’s organizers declined to say how much Bush was paid to speak at the gathering.
Bush was full of jokes during his appearance. He joked that he would do more speeches to pay for his new house in Dallas.
“I actually paid for a house last fall. I think I’m the only American to have bought a house in the fall of 2008,” he quipped.
He also said his mother is doing well. Barbara Bush was released from a Houston hospital Friday, nine days after undergoing heart surgery. “Clearly he can’t live without her,” Bush said of his father and former President George H.W. Bush.
Bush seemed to enjoy himself even though the event started later than expected because of tight security. “I’ll sit here all day,” Bush said during a question-and-answer session. “I’m flattered people even want to hear me in the first place.”
http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0309/20086.html
No wonder Lieberals all sound alike!
http://news.cincinnati.com/article/20090316/NEWS0108/903160337
Finally, Americans are protesting the bailout of failed companies with our tax dollars by politicians .
The old mantra of “too big to fail” is, in itself, a failed concept. Let’s return to when companies lived or died by their own decisions, not the government’s.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123690358175013837.html
According to the Wall Street Journal, President Obama’s approval rating is only 6 — below that of President Bush at the same point of his administration! Wow. What has the media said about that? Absolutely nothing.
The media has a vested interest in perpetuating the theme that Obama is a messianic figure who arrived in the nick of time to save the world — i.e., a Superhero.
Nothing could be further from the truth.
He never specifically articulated his policies during the campaign, but relied on the smoke and mirrors trick of euphemisms — “hope”, “change”, “new attitude in Washington.” Of course, none of these goals can be challenged because they are so amorphous. For example, how do you measure “change”?
The increasing dissatisfaction with the current administration’s direction is merely that the truth is finally appearing. Obama had NO specific goals. He had nothing, including experience, to guide him in this most powerful job on earth. And, his inexperience cannot be hidden forever. As events unfold and he continues to make missteps, the media tries to make excuses for him and his obnoxious Democratic leaders — but the Truth will out. And, guess what?
The Truth hurts!