Do we need to waste any more money?

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has just announced that he is extending the Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) till October of 2010. This is the 700 billion dollar program that was set up to bail-out banks from their toxic assets. The program was set to expire on 12/31/09 unless the administration decided to extend it.

Some banks have been paying back the TARP funds (with interest) and other institutions are in the process of doing the same. Seems that we currently have about $200 billion dollars currently in the TARP fund. Instead of using it to pay down our massive debt, the President wants to use it to stimulate job creation.

I suspect a more sinister use of the TARP money. I don't think it's coincidental that the extension of the program ends right before the 2010 November elections.

$200 billion makes for quite a nice political slush fund. By targeting these "job stimulus dollars", to congressional districts that may be at risk, the Obama Administration can help Democrats get re-elected. This is an especially nice carrot to wave in front of "Blue Dogs" that may take a lot of heat for voting for the health-care and cap and trade bills.

The $200 billion will take "Chicago-Style" politics to the National level.

Then again, I may just be a cynic.

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Don't Give A Terrorist A Fat Lip

Back in 2004, 4 Blackwater Security guards were found murdered, mutilated and charred, hanging from a bridge over the Euprhrates river in Fallujah Iraq. The murderer behind this, Ahmed Hashem Abed, has been captured by the Navy Seals. However, 3 of our heroic Seals that helped in the capture are now awaiting a court-martial. It seems that Abed told investigators that he had been punched and had the bloody lip to prove it.

So I guess we will take the word of a terrorist against our brave troops now? No wonder morale in the military keeps going down.

I would hate to see a bunch of "killed while attempting to escape" incidents happening now ... Lest we give Bin Laden a fat lip when we capture him.

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Will Someone Please Tell The Speaker To Shut Up

Nancy Pelosi decided to once again open her big mouth in an interview aired today on NPR. Pelosi, once again over-stepping her position as Speaker of the House, took a turn at being Secretary of State. She denounced Afghan President Hamid Karzai as an "unworthy partner", undeserving of a big ramp-up of troops or civilian aid.

Madame Speaker, since when is foreign policy made in the House? I think you need a refresher course in the Constitution! Policy is made at the Executive Branch ... the Legislative Branch decides the funding.

Now I have no doubt that the Speaker is well aware of what she is doing, and have a strong suspicion that her stupid comments were cleared by the White House. As our Ditherer-N-Chief is still several weeks away from a decision on troop levels in Afghanistan, perhaps San Fran Nan is setting a base from which a "No New Troops" movement can grow.

As for the President, the excuse of it will take 3 or 4 months to get the troops to Afghanistan, so there is no need to hurry is getting a little thin. If you had made your decision when the troop request was made ... the troops would already be starting to arrive and our young men and women in the combat zone would already be a little safer ... or do you even care?

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All Politics Are Local ... Except When They're Not

The Governorships of Virginia and New Jersey have passed on to the Republican Party, and already the spin-meisters on the left are trying to downplay the election results.

Very interesting that even though all the President's men, as well as our CEO and Chief campaigned for the Democratic losers in these states, the WH and media are proclaiming that this was not a referendum on President Obama's policies. They claim that Tip O'Neill was correct when he stated that "all politics is local".

Actually, except for the grammar, the former speaker was correct in his assumption. The problem for the Democrats is that the policies of the sitting President effect the ENTIRE NATION. So we now have 50 local states that are hurting. This does not bode well for the Democrats in the 2010 mid-term elections. This also does not bode well for the President's Health Care over-haul. Democrats in conservative districts will be running as far away from any new administration policy in the hope of saving their jobs next November (remember ... every seat in the House is up for re-election next year).

Republicans, don't start feeling too happy with yourselves just yet. The policies of the previous administration, along with the spend-thrift ways of the GOP-led Congress helped get us into this predicament. Republicans can't be seen as just politicians that oppose everything that the Democrats try to do. They must have their own plans for bringing this Nation back to prosperity, based upon Conservative economic principles. Right now the GOP has a chance to win back the support of the Nation ... but I fear that they will just waste it as usual. We need a new "Contract with America". Where is the next Newt Gingrich?

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Where's The Transparency?

When our fearless leader was running for President last year, he made a promise that most of America hoped that he would keep. He swore to run, "the most open and transparent government in history". Now that the public-option is in trouble, the debate has become as transparent as .... hmmm .... a large cherry wood door.

Previously, we have had the back-room deals struck with the hospitals, big pharmaceuticals, the AMA and AARP. But now we can't seem to get any information about what is going on while the various bills are being hammered out in the House and Senate.

Anyone else think that the next time we see these bills will be one or two days before they vote on them?

I envision a 2500 page bill being introduced to the Senate as a fait-accomplis. No one will have time to read it before voting, and the public won't get a chance to even look at it.

Possibly enough Senators will block the vote till everyone has enough time to read and debate it (no chance to get enough Representatives in the House to act sane). Is it too much to ask our Congress to at least read an important Bill before voting on it?

Hopefully I'm wrong and our elected officials will do the right thing. But I'm afraid this will just be an example of "Business As Usual" on the Beltway.

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Arianna Huffington Is Right! ... Sort Of

Recently on her hate-filled web-site, Arianna Huffington wrote that Vice-President Biden should resign if we give General McChrystal any more troops for Afghanistan.

Ms. Huffington did not go far enough. I think that Secretary Clinton should resign if General McChrystal does not get the troops he needs.

And while we are at it, can we get resignations from Speaker Pelosi, Harry Reid and the President too? By now they should have realized that they have gotten in too far over their heads and resign before they do serious damage.

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WHY DO WE EVEN BOTHER ASKING OUR GENERALS?

On June 10th 2009, General Stanley A McChrystal was made Comander of our forces in Afghanistan. He had the full backing of the President and the approval of the Senate. His job was to evaluate the situation on the ground and report back on what would be needed to complete the job.

Now the interpretation of what completing the job meant may mean different things to different folks, but what it means to me is that we WIN. The meaning of win is of course open to debate (we are talking about Washington DC ... where countless hours were devoted to figuring out what the meaning of "is" was). So to define it further, winning means 1) eliminating the ability of the Taliban and al-Qaeda to effectively mount any further insurgencies (or in lay-man's terms ... kill them) and 2) Install a sustainable Afghan government that is supported by the citizenry and will not harbor terrorists that wish to harm us.

General McChrystal has given a 66-page report describing what needs to be done to "Win" this war. It calls for an additional 40,000 troops to deal with the insurgency and accelerate the training of the Afghan police and military. This plan of action has been endorsed by General David Petraeus (the guy who brought us the "Surge" in Iraq, grabbing victory from the jaws of defeat).

However, there are a bunch of "Generals" in Washington DC that don't like McChyrstal's plan. General Joe (let's divide Iraq into 3 different countries and leave) Biden, thinks that we should stop fighting the insurgents and just train the Afghans, while occasionally firing missiles into Pakistan to kill al-Qaeda targets.

Generals Pelosi and Kerry of course just want to cut and run ... what a surprise!

Hey General Joe ... we tried fighting a war from DC twice before. During the end of the Korean War and during the Viet Nam war, and guess what?

Politicians make lousy Generals!!!

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HAS EVERYONE HAD ENOUGH YET?

I almost feel badly for the sheeple that voted for our President ... but if they were gullible enough to believe in the "change that you can believe in", I guess they deserve what they got.

I do feel badly for the people who voted against him, that worked their butts off to warn as many people about what could happen if he were elected, only to be met with a barrage of hate directed against them. Because obviously, if you were against electing a Black man to the Presidency, you were a racist.

It doesn't matter if you can provide a logical cognitive thought process to your decision not to support President Obama, you are a racist because ... umm ... well ... just because.

When the race card gets played ... no one wins, not the player or the playee ... and especially not the country, but then again, it doesn't seem like anyone on either side really cares about the country. The Dems are just trying to figure out how to consolidate the most power possible for "Big Government" and themselves. The GOP is trying to sabotage anything they can in the hope that they can regain power in 2010.

It would be nice if the American people would stop rewarding our politicians for acting like petulant children and vote them out of office ... but we keep falling for nice slogans and pretty faces.

We asked for this ... Next November let's ask for something else.

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Obama's Report Card

So ... how has the administration handled the first 100 days? Seems like it is time for a progress report. Let's see how the President has done on 5 key areas ... The areas are: Foreign Policy, Economics, Defense, Social Issues and Intangibles.


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A+ Intangibles ... The President has managed to convince the country that he can lead us out of the recession and restore our prominence in the world. Of course there are people who don't believe he can, but we they are in the minority, just as we they were in the last election. Don't discount the intangibles, we have often heard of educators that gave their students work that was many grade levels above what they were supposed to be studying and because the students thought that they were expected to learn it ... they did. He has given the majority of Americans HOPE.


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C- Foreign Policy ... I would give the President an A for his handling of the Somali Pirates (would have been an A+ if he had acted 3 days earlier). The rest of his foreign policy is a disaster. Bowing to the Saudi King would not have been that bad if he had just explained that it was an error. It might have actually played well for him. But trying to deny what everyone could actually see for themselves was very Clintonesque. Acting friendly with the rulers of Venezuela, Cuba, Nicaragua and China is an actual slap in the face of those people that are currently fighting, dead or imprisoned in those countries for trying to bring to their despotic homelands just a sliver of the freedoms that we enjoy in the United States. The USA should be helping those fighting against oppressive rule, not glad-handing their oppressors.
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D Economy ... Much as I hate even thinking about TARP, this has to be addressed here. Now this is a combined grade with the Bush administration having authorized and spent half of it. But it seems that having given 600 Billion to the Banks in order to loosen-up lending, shouldn't they be lending more? Kudos to Wells Fargo, which has actually increased lending from last year, but to the rest of the banks ... well, lucky you can't see the gesture that I am sending your way. Bank of America used the TARP money to buy other banks ... I guess that way they could get the TARP money from the banks they bought too. And now, when some banks want to give the money back, the government doesn't want to take it. Moving on to the "stimulus package" ... have you ever seen such a pork-filled political pay-back packed piece of s&*7 legislation? Guess the President didn't keep his word about vetoing bills with earmarks. And I don't have enough memory in this computer to go on about his 10 trillion dollar budget. I better stop now before I lower his grade.
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A+++Social Issues ... WTF??? you may be asking yourself, have the Blogway Boys gone completely crazy? This guy is a total disaster on social issues. But guess what folks, we all knew where he stood when we elected him, and boy has he delivered.
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F Defense ... The most important job of government is to keep us safe. As far as I'm concerned there is no debate on this, and all the other things that government does for us (post office, schools, roads etc) is just an added blessing (or curse). This administration is going to leave us weakened militarily and open to an attack that may make September 11th look like the good old days. Seems that all the other divisions of the government (commerce, agriculture etc) got bigger in the Obama budget, while defence was told to cut back. One of the things that the Army has been told to cut back is FCS (future combat systems). This includes things like robots for clearing minefields and disarming mines as well as things like the Predator drones that have been so effective in Iraq and Afghanistan and allow our troops to kill the enemy from miles away and have been directly responsible for saving lives and limbs. Mr. President ... just because you abolished the term "war on terror", doesn't mean that there aren't people out there that want to kill Americans ... and it is your responsibility to ensure that they don't succeed. And by the way, releasing memos on enhanced interrogation techniques and photos of abuse is not the way to safeguard America's security ... It's just a way to pander to your base.

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"PLEASE SAVE MY BABY-BOY"

Well, it didn't take very long did it? Some intrepid reporter tracked down the family of the lone-surviving Somali pirate. His mom is now pleading with the President to pardon her son because he was enticed into piracy by "gangsters with money". Newsflash mom, that's how most criminals turn to crime. The mom also wants the President to allow her to come to the United States to be with her boy (probably at taxpayer expense). She says her boy is only 16 ... though he says he is 19. On the off-chance that he is 16, she should be allowed a visa to visit her son and attend the trial ... but she needs to come up with the money to do so.

In yet another example of lawyer self-aggrandisement, prominent New York Civil Rights attorney, Ron Kuby is in discussions about forming a legal team to represent the young pirate. I never met a lawyer that didn't love press coverage, and Kuby is no exception.

In a welcome turn of events, several attempts to hi-jack other ships have been thwarted by NATO forces this past week. It just goes to show that when America steps up and shows strength, other nations follow. It's time for America to take the lead wherever evil people attempt to oppress others ... are you listening Hugo Chavez, Mahmoud Ahmadinijad and Kim Il Sung?

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Well Done Mr President ... BUT

I don't get to say this often but, "Kudos Mr President", your decision to let the Seals take out those Somali pirates was the correct one. Those 3 shots heard round the horn of Africa sent a simple and clear message ... you mess with our citizens ... you pay a steep price. This is the kind of message that I the world expected of a Ronald Reagan ... and it is very refreshing indeed to get it from a Barrack Obama.

I've been listening to the pundits for the last day or so, and there seems to be a consensus that the President's actions were to appease the conservative and pro national defense moderates in the country, but I say ... "So What???" A right decision reached for the wrong reasons is still a right decision.

Now be careful Mr. President, there will be a gnawing feeling in your gut to apologize to the families of these maritime terrorists ... DON'T DO IT! Your actions showed strength, and we absolutely do not want to be viewed as weak by the world. If this was your international "test", you passed with flying colors. Any "extra-credit work" will only lower your grade.

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What Did You Expect?

Congratulations America ... What 40+ years of the Cold War couldn't accomplish, President Obama did within the first 100 days of his Reign. We have now socialized a good portion of our economy. First our financial institutions, and now a major portion of our manufacturing sector. Next on the list ... Health Care.

Now, the President was well within his rights to fire the CEO of General Motors. Think of this as a "de-facto" bankruptcy, and our new Car-Dealer-N-Chief as the Bankruptcy judge. He is simply ordering the restructuring of the company. He got that "right" when GM got tax-payer money.

The President has given Government Motors 60 days to wring concessions from the UAW (United Auto Workers Union) to ensure the company's viability. I guess a "worker's paradise" will have to be put on hold for a while. At the end of the 60 days, I guess GM will have to go into bankruptcy so that they can void their contracts with the unions, suppliers and dealers. Because, does anyone think the union will actually voluntarily give up anything?

It is my opinion, that this has put the President in a bad position. He has staked so much political capital on GM succeeding, he is going to have to continue to pour billions of dollars into the company. If GM goes down, it will be seen as a failure by the President.

The big question is ... How much pressure is the President going to put on the Unions, they are the ones that brought him to the dance after all.

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