Saturday, March 28, 2009
Germany's Angela Merkel Roadblocks "Global New Deal"
The London TimesOnline reports that "Angela Merkel, the German chancellor, last night led the assault on the [British] prime minister’s 'global new deal' for a $2 trillion-plus fiscal stimulus to end the recession. 'I will not let anyone tell me that we must spend more money,' she said. The Spanish finance minister, Pedro Solbes, also dismissed new cash being pledged at Thursday’s London summit. 'In these conditions I and the rest of my colleagues from the eurozone believe there is no room for new fiscal stimulus plans,' he said... The assault by European Union leaders also represents a defeat for President Barack Obama, who is desperate for other big economies to copy his $800 billion stimulus plan."
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Friday, March 27, 2009
British European Parliament Member Daniel Hannan On Fox News
Daniel Hannan on Hannity:
He also appeared on Neal Cavuto's "Your World":
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Thursday, March 26, 2009
Economic Crisis As Explained By "South Park"
Unfortunately this depiction is accurate. Replace the "Margaritaville" with a home and you have the collapse of the housing and secondary markets based on faulty mortgages. Highly educated MBA investment bankers creating these schemes built on a house of cards whose bottom card was bad loans encouraged by the government.
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Rahm Emanuel Made At Least $320,000 From Freddie Mac Doing Squat
The Chicago Tribune reports that "mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator. One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago's Rahm Emanuel—now chief of staff to President Barack Obama—who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort. As gatekeeper to Obama, Emanuel now plays a critical role in addressing the nation's mortgage woes and fulfilling the administration's pledge to impose responsibility on the financial world... "
"The Freddie Mac money was a small piece of the $16 million he made in a three-year interlude as an investment banker a decade ago... He was named to the Freddie Mac board in February 2000 by Clinton, whom Emanuel had served as White House political director and vocal defender during the Whitewater and Monica Lewinsky scandals. The board met no more than six times a year. Unlike most fellow directors, Emanuel was not assigned to any of the board's working committees, according to company proxy statements. Immediately upon joining the board, Emanuel and other new directors qualified for $380,000 in stock and options plus a $20,000 annual fee, records indicate. On Emanuel's watch, the board was told by executives of a plan to use accounting tricks to mislead shareholders about outsize profits the government-chartered firm was then reaping from risky investments. The goal was to push earnings onto the books in future years, ensuring that Freddie Mac would appear profitable on paper for years to come and helping maximize annual bonuses for company brass. The accounting scandal wasn't the only one that brewed during Emanuel's tenure. During his brief time on the board, the company hatched a plan to enhance its political muscle. That scheme, also reviewed by the board, led to a record $3.8 million fine from the Federal Election Commission for illegally using corporate resources to host fundraisers for politicians. Emanuel was the beneficiary of one of those parties after he left the board and ran in 2002 for a seat in Congress from the North Side of Chicago. The board was throttled for its acquiescence to the accounting manipulation in a 2003 report by Armando Falcon Jr., head of a federal oversight agency for Freddie Mac. The scandal forced Freddie Mac to restate $5 billion in earnings and pay $585 million in fines and legal settlements. It also foreshadowed even harder times at the firm. Many of those same risky investment practices tied to the accounting scandal eventually brought the firm to the brink of insolvency and led to its seizure last year by the Bush administration, which pledged to inject up to $100 billion in new capital to keep the firm afloat. The Obama administration has doubled that commitment. Freddie Mac reported recently that it lost $50 billion in 2008. It so far has tapped $14 billion of the government's guarantee and said it soon will need an additional $30 billion to keep operating."
The collapse of Fannie and Freddie based on buying up bad mortgages are at the very core of our current financial mess. Rahm Emanuel was on the board of Freddie as disaster surrounded him. Rahm Emanuel recieved large amounts of money for doing nothing on the Freddie board.
This is the man we want advising the President on our current financial mess? The fire is burning, but don't worry, the arsonist is here to help! Not only are arsonists like Emanuel helping run the show at the White House, but arsonists the likes of Rep. Barney Frank and Senator Chris Dodd, who continously assured America that Fannie and Freddie were financially strong and encouraged continued recklesss lending, are running the show in Congress.
I propose a thought experiment: Replace the name Rahm Emanuel with Karl Rove in this Chicago Tribune story and imagine the difference in the media reaction. Imagine the difference in the magnitude of outrage.
If Democrat punitive taxes are going to be used against AIG executives perhaps Congress should consider taxing %90 of what Rahm Emanuel made off of Freddie as corruption surrounded him and he did nothing but sit on his rear.
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Anti-Semitic Naziesque Cartoon Published By NY Times, Washington Post, And Other Major US Newspapers
The cartoon is by Pulitzer Prize-winning and syndicated cartoonist Patrick "Pat" Oliphant. He is one of the most widely syndicated editorial cartoonists in the world. The cartoon appeared on the New York Times and Washington Post websites as well as other online outlets. Universal Press Syndicate distributes Oliphant's cartoons. The Los Angeles-based Simon Wiesenthal Center, a Jewish rights group with more than 400,000 members in the United States, says the cartoon denigrates and demonizes Israel and mimics the Nazi propaganda.
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Wednesday, March 25, 2009
Czech Prime Minister: Obama Policies Are "The Road To Hell."
The holder of the EU presidency condemned American remedies for the global recession as “the road to hell.” Mirek Topolanek, the Czech Republic’s prime minister told the European parliament in Strasbourg that “the US Treasury secretary talks about permanent action and we, at our spring council, were quite alarmed at that . . . The US is repeating mistakes from the 1930s, such as wide-ranging stimuluses, protectionist tendencies and appeals, the Buy American campaign, and so on. All these steps, their combination and their permanency, are the road to hell.”
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Fact Checking Obama's Press Conference
The following are two examples of dishonesty from Obama's Tuesday night press conference as pointed out by the Associated Press:
THE CLAIM: "We will recover from this recession. But it will take time, it will take patience, and it will take an understanding that when we all work together, when each of us looks beyond our own short-term interests to the wider set of obligations we have to each other, that's when we succeed."
THE FACTS: The nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office last week predicted that the Obama budget would produce deficits averaging nearly $1 trillion over the next decade.
It also appears that Obama needs a course in capitalism 101. Capitalism is about individual and competing interests, which is the engine of creativity. It is what has allowed for the great power of wealth creation in our country. In contrast, it was Karl Marx who spoke of the "socialized man." Obama tells us that we need to ignore our own individual interests and focus on "the wider set of obligations we have to each other." Or as Karl Marx famously put it in the “Critique of the Gotha Program,” communist society would “inscribe on its banner: From each according to his ability, to each according to his need!”
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THE CLAIM: Obama repeated his assertion that his housing bailout will help "stabilize the housing market and help responsible homeowners stay in their homes."
THE FACTS: Even officials in his administration, many supporters of the plan in Congress and the Federal Reserve chairman have said some of the bailout money is bound to go to those who acted irresponsibly. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke has said it's important for the nation to go ahead with the plan even though it means assistance will go to some who should have known better than to get in over their heads. Sheila Bair, head of the Federal Deposit Insurance Corp., made a similar point when she said it's "simply impractical" to examine every delinquent loan and weed out those taken by people who overstated their income or assets to get a mortgage they couldn't afford.
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Obama Targeting Charitable Deductions
President Obama has proposed decreasing the charitable tax deduction for wealthy taxpayers. The USA Today reports that "Obama's proposed 2010 federal budget contains a 7% cut in charitable tax deductions for the nation's wealthiest taxpayers... Americans whose household income exceeds $250,000 a year...can currently save $350 in taxes for every $1,000 donated to charity; under Obama's plan, that amount would drop to $280 per $1,000 donation." Speaking at a news conference Tuesday evening, Obama said "there's very little evidence that this has a significant impact on charitable giving." He went on to say that "if it's really a charitable contribution, I'm assuming that that shouldn't be the determining factor as to whether you're giving that $100 to the homeless shelter down the street."
"By doing this, you raise the cost of giving" said Roberton Williams, a senior fellow at The Tax Policy Center, a liberal Washington think tank. Williams' estimates directly contradict those of Obama who says there will be no significant impact on charitable giving. The USA Today reports that "by Williams' calculations the change will result in a 10% drop in charitable giving by wealthy Americans, who typically contribute about 20% of all charitable dollars. In real dollars, Williams projects a decline of about $6 billion in charitable donations because of the change."
It seems especially relevant to examine Barack Obama's own charitable giving as he lectures Americans about what the "determining factor" in giving charity should be and as he prepares to cut charitable deductions. Obama's own charitable giving reveals that Obama has no moral authority to stand behind his podium and lecture other Americans about charitable giving. Professor Arthur C. Brooks, the Louis A. Bantle Professor at the Syracuse University's Maxwell School and a visiting scholar at the American Enterprise Institute, has written about the charitable giving of Barack Obama. Professor Brooks notes that "between 2000 and 2004" the Obamas "gave less than one percent of their income to charity, far lower than the national average. Their giving rose to a laudable five percent in 2005 and six percent in 2006, with the explosion of their annual income to near $1 million, and the advent of Mr. Obama’s national political aspirations (representing a rare case in which political ambition apparently led to social benefit). According to an Obama spokesman, the couple’s miserly charity until 2005 'was as generous as they could be at the time,' given their personal expenses. In other words, despite an annual average income over the period of about $244,000, they simply could not afford to give anything meaningful.... The Obamas got rich in 2005. Their income increased sevenfold from 2004 to 2005, mostly because of Mr. Obama’s book royalties, and stayed very high in 2006 for the same reason. In 2005, another wealthy political couple with significant book royalties was Mr. and Mrs. Cheney, who had a combined income of $8.8 million, largely due to Mrs. Cheney’s books and the couple’s investment income. Just how much did the Cheneys give to charity from their bonanza? A measly 78 percent of their income, or $6.9 million. (No, that is not a misprint.)"
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Egyptian Cleric Said Al-Afani: Jews Are The Offspring Of Snakes And Vipers, The Slayers Of Prophets, And The Cause Of All Wars
A religious TV program featuring Egyptian clerics Sheik Said Al-'Afani and Sheik Muhammad Abd Al-Salam aired on Al-Rahma TV on January 17, 2009. Sheik Said Al-'Afani calls Jews "the accursed people, who incurred the wrath of Allah. They are the offspring of snakes and vipers, the slayers of our Prophet Muhammad, whose death was a consequence of his being poisoned by a Jewish woman... We should know that the Jews are the slayers of the prophets... Our hatred of them is purely on religious grounds, and not because of the pure, sacred land, which was blessed by Allah, or because of Gaza." He goes on to say that "the Jews were behind World War I and World War II. When the American commander said that Japan had agreed to the terms of surrender, Rothschild the American – or rather, Roosevelt the American – was told by the Jewish loan sharks to drop the bomb on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. The Jews were behind the English Revolution. The Jews were behind the French Revolution. The Jews were behind the U.S. Civil War in 1869-1866 [sic]. The Jews were behind the French coup of 1815. The Jews were behind the war between France and Prussia. The Jews were behind the rise of Communism. Karl Marx was a Jew. The Jews instigated war by means of sex. The Jewish Mathilde inspired Johnson to carry out the 1967 war, as we are informed by Muhammad Hassanein Haykal. The Jews are behind all the ruin and destruction in the world."
To view the video of this hatemonger visit http://www.memritv.org/clip/en/2058.htm
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European Parliament Member Daniel Hannan Savages British PM Gordon Brown At EU Meet
Obama could also take a hint from Daniel Hannan:
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Obama And Deficits
After carefully viewing the graph above on past and projected deficits, watch President Obama try to answer a question about how he can keep blaming Bush for amassing debt:
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Tuesday, March 24, 2009
"Tea Party" Anthem
See the singer and creator of the "Tea Party" anthem, Lloyd Marcus, appearing on Fox News:
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