". . . a republic, if you can keep it."
More change we can believe in:
“Despite now overwhelming evidence that ex-President George W. Bush and many top aides engaged in a systematic policy of illegal torture, national Democrats appear to be shying away from their recommendation last year for a special prosecutor to investigate these apparent war crimes.” (Read more from atlanticfreepress.com)
Obama = more of the same (but better P. R.)
– Ron Paul on the budget, war, global governance, the dollar, and blaming freedom:
– Obama’s $163,000 Tax Bomb “The House and Senate are preparing to pass President Barack Obama’s radical budget blueprint, with only minor modifications, by using (abusing would be more accurate) the budget ‘reconciliation’ process. This process circumvents the Senate’s normal rules requiring 60 votes to prevent a filibuster. Reconciliation was created by Congress in the mid-1970s to enforce deficit reduction, the opposite of what the president and his party are aiming for. The immense increase in nondefense spending and taxes, and the tripling of the national debt in Mr. Obama’s budget, have been the subject of considerable scrutiny since it was announced. . . .
[Obama] claims to reduce the deficit by half, to shave $2 trillion off the debt (the cumulative deficit over his 10-year budget horizon), and not to raise taxes on anyone making less than $250,000 a year. While in a Clintonian sense correct (depends on what the definition of “is” is), it is far more accurate to describe Mr. Obama’s budget as almost tripling the deficit. . . .
Finally, what of the claim not to raise taxes on anyone earning less than $250,000 a year? Even ignoring his large energy taxes, Mr. Obama must reconcile his arithmetic. . . . Mr. Obama is going to leave a discounted present-value legacy of $6.5 trillion of additional future taxes, unless he dramatically cuts spending. (With interest the future tax hikes would be much larger later on.) Call it a stealth tax increase or ticking tax time-bomb. . . . If spread evenly over all those paying income taxes . . . every income-tax paying family would get a tax bill for $163,000.” (Read more from online.wsj.com)
– Obama’s Banking Rescue: O for Opaque
“President Obama has promised to run an administration of unprecedented openness. And in some respects, such as the ground rules for spending stimulus funds, he has. But in the most important area of all, the financial rescue, the administration is making trillion dollar decisions relying on the Federal Reserve and a small Wall Street club of advisors, with no transparency or public accountability.” (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)
– Stealing a Nation
“Bloomberg News reported earlier this week that it had calculated the total spending promised by the Obama administration to date as equaling the nation’s gross national product for one entire year—around $13 trillion. The public has grown inured to daily reports of massive spending programs and the administration’s fear mongering that the world will come to an end—or rather the cushy jobs of its friends on Wall Street will come to an end—unless our government spends and inflates on a scale that has never before been attempted. Ah, all the more reason to admire us, their propagandists proclaim, for the boldness of our actions in the face of such a calamity.
Yes, a calamity is approaching. It is the calamity brought about by reckless spending of the nation’s wealth in pursuit of the unattainable. There is no way that the trillions of dollars of malinvestment of the last few years can be pulled back out of the sinkhole. The money is gone. There is no way to get it back. What the Obama administration is doing is trying to make everyone pay for this massive loss when the proper, legal, ethical policy should be to ensure that those involved accept their losses like men.” (Read more form patrickbarron.blogspot.com)
– Geithner’s Plan Will Tax Main Street to Make Wall Street Richer
“The new consensus among the experts who missed the housing bubble (EMHB) is that Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner’s plan to subsidize the purchase of junk mortgages and their derivatives will help alleviate the stress on the banking system. That’s good news.
These geniuses have devised a plan that for $1 trillion (approximately equal to 300 million kid-years of SCHIP, the State Child Health Insurance Program) can alleviate the stress on the banking system. Note that no one claims that $1 trillion spent on the Geithner plan will actually clean up the banking system – that would be asking too much. The EMHB only assure us that this $1 trillion (more than enough to have energy conserving retrofits for every building in the country) will make things better. Isn’t that enough?” (Read more from truthout.org)
Obama’s court: “Taxes are for commoners.”
Add Sebelius to list of Obama Cabinet picks with tax troubles
“President Obama’s second choice to lead Health and Human Services said she’s paid nearly $8,000 for ‘unintentional’ tax errors. . . . The list of nominees with tax trouble includes Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was Obama’s first choice for HHS and withdrew after disclosing that he paid $140,000 in back taxes and interest. Neither Sebelius nor the White House issued a comment.” (Read more from miamiherald.com)
by Stephen J. Sniegoski
“Many Americans, in fact, many people in the world, have been under the impression that Obama’s approach to foreign policy, especially as it pertains to the Middle East, would be the antithesis of that of the Bush administration. This dichotomy, however, is increasingly questionable as the professed advocate of change looks more like a proponent of continuation.
In fact, even during the Presidential campaign Obama did not present a consistently peaceful foreign policy. For example, immediately after becoming the de facto Democratic presidential nominee he addressed the American Israel Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC), a powerful pro-Israel lobby. He not only pledged full support to Israel but also expressed strong words against Iran – promising to do everything in his power to prevent Iran from obtaining a nuclear weapon and demanding an end to Iranian support for Hezbollah and Hamas, the militant enemies of Israel, as the price for ending American economic warfare.
All of this can reasonably lead to the question: Will Obama’s Middle East policy differ significantly from that of the neoconservatives who were the driving force for the war on Iraq and have fashioned a broader Israelocentric Middle East war agenda? (The neoconservatives are the subject of my recent book: The Transparent Cabal: The Neoconservative Agenda, War in the Middle East, and the National Interest of Israel). Obama himself does not appear to be completely aligned with the neocon position as was John McCain. However, the President’s close advisors, such as David Axelrod, Rahm Emanuel, Dennis Ross, Joe Biden, and Hillary Clinton, tend to be ardently pro-Israel and hawkish, reflecting a neocon orientation, even though none of these individuals are actually neocons.” (Read more from antiwar.com)
“If he fires and replaces his economic and military teams, and announces both a quick end to the Iraq and Afghanistan Wars and the immediate break-up of the country’s big failed national banks and financial institutions, he has a chance to become a great president. If he does not, it is as predictable as the rising of the seas that his presidency will be a failure. We are nearing a point where the American public is going to lose patience with the half measures, the continuing pouring of national treasure down the twin sinkholes of the failed financial institutions and the two endless wars in the Middle East, and the tone-deaf behavior of cabinet secretaries and advisors who don’t have a clue about how average Americans are living these days.” (Read more from commondreams.org)
The crooks are in charge.
Obama = more of the same
“WASHINGTON — Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the American International Group Inc. board of directors in early 2008 when the insurance company locked in the bonuses now stoking national outrage. Holbrooke, a veteran diplomat who is now the administration’s point man on Pakistan and Afghanistan, served on the board between 2001 and mid-2008.
During that period, AIG undertook the aggressive investment strategies that led to a near-collapse and forced a multibillion-dollar federal bailout.” (Read more from huffingtonpost.com)
This is a new compilation to an old Ron Paul speech.
Sounds like he’s a real conservative. Refreshing.
There is a battle raging for the Republican Party between the conservatives who believe in conservative values (small government, non-intervention, individual liberty) and the neo-conservatives, who are neither conservative nor neo. Guys like Rush Limbaugh are party hacks at best, rationalizing whatever policy Republicans propose regardless any principles.
I hope my liberal friends see past the latter category into the former.
Excerpted at Daily Paul:
Kentucky Progress is reporting: Congressman Ron Paul’s son Rand is going to run for the U.S. Senate seat currently held by Sen. Jim Bunning if Bunning ultimately decides not to run, he said Thursday night.
The Houston Chronicle / AP has also picked the story: FRANKFORT, Ky. (AP) — Yet another Republican is considering a run for U.S. Sen. Jim Bunning’s seat.
I’m generally against discrediting organizations and ideas by ridiculing the worst of their members. It’s too cheap and easy; a “straw-man” rebuttal. Nevertheless, these videos are funny enough to earn an exception. Enjoy.
also: Hope, Change, and a Post-Apocalyptic Garbage Blizzard
Obama breaks his promise about lobbyists in government.
“President-elect Barack Obama appointed a defense contractor’s lobbyist Thursday to become the No. 2 official at the Defense Department, acknowledging that his choice appeared to break with his self-imposed rules to keep lobbyists at arm’s length.” (Read more from exposeobama.com)
Obama = more of the same
“In his inauguration speech, President Obama singled out ‘honesty and hard work, courage and fair play, tolerance and patriotism’ as ‘those values upon which our success depends.’
So why did Obama nominate a tax scofflaw to head the U.S. Treasury, which oversees the Internal Revenue Service?
. . . .
The tax issue: Geithner, who now heads the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, failed to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes when they were due on income he received from the International Monetary Fund between 2001 and 2004.” (Read more from sfgate.com)
Obama = more of the same
See Also:
Meet the New Boss; Same as the Old Boss