1. No reason to worry:
No fear of double dip recession: US treasury chiefWASHINGTON: "US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner dismissed fears of a double dip recession in an interview aired on Sunday, but warned of a slow US recovery with the economy only gradually gaining strength.
Geithner was asked on NBC's "Meet the Press" whether he thought the economy would dip back into recession before things got better.
"No, I don't," he answered. -more
2. Start worrying:
Chance of double-dip recession is high: (Reuters)- "The state of the economy is worrisome and there is a high possibility of a double-dip recession, one of the property market's most well-known economists said on Tuesday.
Robert Shiller, professor of economics at Yale University and co-developer of Standard and Poor's S&P/Case-Shiller home price indexes, told Reuters Insider he does not know where home prices may be headed, but believes the economy may be on a precarious path.
"For me a double-dip is another recession before we've healed from this recession ... The probability of that kind of double-dip is more than 50 percent," Shiller said.
"I actually expect it." -more
Read more Great ToonLogs at Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen
Social Security: Government 'Ponzi' Scheme Turns 75 with $41 Billion Shortfall
(The Balance Sheet) Social Security, with its 'trust fund' filled with Treasury IOUs, is in serious fiscal trouble, but you wouldn't guess it from stories by the mainstream news media. Reporters and columnists have downplayed the program’s budget shortfall and claimed that fixing the broken system would be a “snap.”
American Anger Hotter Than the Weather ... for Good Reason
(The Balance Sheet) Budget woes, ethical failures, enormous deficit, high unemployment and more all add to rising tide of resentment.
Dems Dish More Bailouts
(Glenn Beck) $26.1 billion dollars this time to (allegedly) save teachers' jobs all across America - a bill that came at the expense of cutting food stamps. Glenn wonders what the political strategy is on this bill, considering Gibbs came out yesterday and took a jab at the far left - the same day they cut food stamps. Glenn lays out the scenario on radio today. ( Transcript, Insider Audio) Check out this FREE Insider Extreme clip for more on this emergency spending bill.
Ground Zero Mosque Reveals Deeper Muslim Problem
(Washington Insider with Ronald Kessler) With his refusal to condemn terrorists and insensitivity to New Yorkers devastated by the 9/11 attack, Imam Feisal Abdul Rauf symbolizes the attitudes that need to change within the Muslim community.
Instead of the Negative “Earth Hour” Hocus-pocus nonsense, Celebrate Human Achievement Hour.
Rejoice in the fact that your fellow human beings have mastered fire, created an agricultural world, built wondrous monuments, invented miraculous machines, and otherwise exercised their creative powers to make the world the great place it is today.
Turn ON your lights from 8:30 - 9:30 pm Tonight!
Also posting:
Cord Blomquist Celebrate Human Achievement Hour
and Michelle Malkin and many others.
BRUSSELS (SR) - The head of the European Union, Mirek Topolanek, slammed President Barack Obama's plan to spend nearly $2 trillion to push the U.S. economy out of recession as "the road to hell."
"Even an ex-crackhead community organizer should know that trying to repair an economy by spending trillions you don't have is idiocy," said Topolanek.
The blunt comments by the Czech Prime Minister to the European Parliament on Wednesday highlighted simmering European differences with Washington ahead of a key summit next week on fixing the world economy.
Obama insisted Tuesday that his massive and bloated budget proposal will put the ailing U.S. economy back on its feet. "Borrowing trillions of dollars for temporary building and pork projects just makes sense to me," he said, "because it lays the foundation for a secure and lasting prosperity, at least until we have to pay it back."
President Obama defends stimulus plan
Read More Satire at Scooter's Report
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| Shredding the Constitution |
"With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators." --James Madison
"If you compare the vision of our nation's founders to the behavior of today's Congress, White House and U.S. Supreme Court, you would have to conclude that there is no longer rule of law where there is a set of general rules applicable to all persons. Today, we are commanded by legislative thugs who, with Supreme Court sanction, issue orders commanding particular people to do particular things. Most Americans neither understand nor appreciate the spirit and letter of the Constitution and accept Congress' arbitrary orders and privileges based upon status." --economist Walter E. Williams
"Barely two months into his Presidency, Obama is wreaking havoc, crippling the nation, oblivious to consequences and monumentally arrogant, believing the timbre of his voice and the manipulation of the media will win public confidence until the socialist utopia he believes in comes to fruition. Who knows how bad it will be in a year, let alone four?" --columnist Lance Fairchok
"Wall Street -- including the banking sector -- is burning itself down. The fire is fueled by panic -- the final stage in a decline of confidence -- and can only be put out by measures that restore confidence. ... But President Obama -- having first claimed that only government can solve the economic problems -- is failing to provide any solutions Wall Street can believe in." --Human Events editor Jed Babbin
"Obama is a great pretender. He repeatedly says he's doing things that he isn't, trusting his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference." --Washington Post editor Robert Samuelson
"You can't expect people to unite behind you if you're trying to jam a whole bunch of things down their throat" --investor and Obama supporter Warren Buffett
"The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government." --economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006)
"We have rights, as individuals, to give as much of our own money as we please to charity; but as members of Congress we have no right so to appropriate a dollar of public money." --American hunter, frontiersman, soldier and politician Davy Crockett (1786-1836)
"Politics are not the high class, marvelous thing that lots of you picture. Our whole government workings are crammed with 'baloney.'" --humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)
"What's a life worth? Apparently not much in Great Britain. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the government agency that decides which treatments the National Health Service will pay for, has effectively banned Lapatinib, a drug that was shown to slow the progression of breast cancer, and Sutent, which is the only medicine that can prolong the lives of some stomach cancer patients. Banning beneficial drugs due to cost is nothing new in Britain. NICE, which has to be one of history's most ironic acronyms, forbade the use of Tarceva, a lung cancer drug proven to extend patients' lives, and Abatacept, even though it's one of the only drugs that has been shown in clinical testing to improve severe rheumatoid arthritis. Once again, we have to ask: Do we really want to use the British system as the model for a U.S. health care regime? Promises of an effective, cost-effective health care system operated by the federal government are cruel fabrications. The British system shows that the state makes a mess of health care. So does the Canadian plan, which is plagued with unhealthy and often deadly waiting times for treatment. The Swedish government system is no better. It also refuses to provide some expensive medication and, inhumanely, refuses to let patients buy the drugs themselves. Why? According to a Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons article, bureaucrats believe doing so 'would set a bad precedent and lead to unequal access to medicine.' Like Canadians, Swedes are subjected to long waits. They also have denial-of-care problems that sometimes lead to death. A reasonable person would see the record of repeated failures in government-run medicine as evidence that such a system is not sustainable. Yet every central planner thinks he or she -- or his or her immediate group -- is smart enough to correct the flaws of socialist programs and therefore has the moral authority to force others to participate in his experiments. It is the same thinking that will move a person to say we are the ones we've been waiting for." --Investor's Business Daily
Get the shovel ready: "It's the government that's going to have to pull us out of this recession." --CBS reporter Anthony Mason
Spinning for the White House: "The recession has now cost nearly four-and-a-half million Americans their jobs. We'll show you the new jobs his stimulus plan is creating. ... Some of the $787 billion in stimulus money designed to create new jobs is already flowing through the pipeline. At the other end of it, millions of people are waiting hopefully for work." --CBS anchor Katie Couric
A liberal wakes up to liberalism: "President Obama's team, unlike Bush's team, demonstrates a thinness of skin that shocks me. When I somewhat obviously and empirically judged that the populist Obama administration is exacerbating the crisis with its budget and policies, as evidenced by the incredible decline in the [stock market] averages since his inauguration, I was met immediately with condescension and ridicule rather than constructive debate or even just benign dismissal. I said to myself, 'What the heck? Are they really that blind to the Great Wealth Destruction they are causing with their decisions to demonize the bankers, raise taxes for the wealthy, advocate draconian cap-and-trade policies and upend the health care system? Do they really believe that only the rich own stocks? What do they think we have our retirement accounts in, CDs? Where did they think that the money saved for college went, our mattresses?" --MSNBC's Jim Cramer
Getting the facts wrong: "Reversing course. President Obama lifts the ban on embryonic stem cell research... But is the president going far enough?" --CBS's Julie Chen ++ From the Department of Corrections: "And we should say, this under President Bush was not banned or illegal, except now we're getting federal funding." --CBS's Maggie Rodriguez later in the segment
Politics over science: "President Obama is going to fulfill one of his campaign promises by ending restrictions on federally funded research using embryonic stem cells. This could lead to better treatments and possibly cures for many diseases. But it will not end a visceral debate." --ABC's Lisa Stark **Name one cure for any disease found through embryonic stem cell research. Just one.
Newspulper Headlines:
Free Pizza Delivery and Video Rental?: "Feds Unveil Plan to Help 9 Million Stay in Homes" --Associated Press
We Blame Global Warming: "Pinconning Area High School Will Become Tropical Rain Forest on Monday" --Bay City (MI) Times
'This Trail Really Stinks': "More Than 800 Protest Sewer Hike" --Yuma (AZ) Sun
Everything Seemingly Is Spinning Out of Control: "Burping Worms May Contribute to Climate Change" --FoxNews.com
News You Can Use: "Drivers Find Roads Are Slippery After Snow" --Baltimore Sun Web site
Bottom Stories of the Day: "Gas Problem Reported at Local Taco Bell" --Dayton Daily News
(Thanks to The Wall Street Journal's James Taranto)
Here he comes to save the day: "There are a lot of people out there who are desperate. There's a lot of desperation out there. Today I want them and the people like them across this country to know that I have not forgotten them." --the Almighty Barack Obama
Troubles with the media: "It was hard for me to believe that you were entirely serious about that socialist question." --Barack Obama to New York Times reporters who dared ask such a thing about his policies
The BIG Lie: "[W]e've actually been operating in a way that has been entirely consistent with free-market principles. ... The fact that we've had to take these extraordinary measures and intervene is not an indication of my ideological preference, but an indication of the degree to which lax regulation and extravagant risk taking has precipitated a crisis." --Barack Obama
Please do leave it alone: "[I]f coming in [to office] the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me to stay out of it. You know, I have more than enough to do without having to worry about the financial system." --Barack Obama **We'd be more than happy for you leave the financial system alone, too.
Quid pro quo: "We're going to make sure that in every policy, every decision, we don't lose sight of the folks that brought us to the dance. And toward that end, we have to make sure that the jobs we're creating come with fair wages and decent benefits." --Vice President Joe Biden to the AFL-CIO Executive Committee
The real agenda: "Never waste a good crisis ... Don't waste it when it can have a very positive impact on climate change and energy security." --Secretary of State Hillary Clinton
Politics over science II: "By lifting the executive ban on federal funding for stem cell research, President Obama has given hope, and potentially health, to millions. ... President Obama has also restored science to its rightful place in our national debates." --House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA)
The truth about pork: "That there is something inherently evil, wicked or criminal or wrong with ... [political pork earmarks], it's just not the case. Otherwise, what happens? We give the money to the agency downtown and they decide where to spend it. It isn't as if the money won't be spent. Oh, it will be spent. But it may not be spent as effectively or for projects that are as valuable." --Sen. Dick Durbin (D-IL)
Stop debating? But that's what science is: "The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse. We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a 'on the one hand, on the other hand' issue. It's not a matter of theory or conjecture, for goodness sake." --Al Gore
Blame Rush: "President Obama's a good friend of mine, and I'd just like to think about him and, you know, I know -- you know Rush Limbaugh and a lot of jackasses give him a hard time right now. They always trying to divide and conquer the country. They've already ruined the country, and now he's trying to save the country, and I want him to keep his head held high." --former NBA star Charles Barkley
Maybe she actually gets it: "If you are just fed up, at some point, just lean out your window and scream, 'I'm mad as hell,' 'cause that's what's happening to me. I'm losing my mind, because I don't understand why -- like they -- one of the things that I saw recently, they have this whole thing about taxing 'the wealthy.' Okay. Now, I don't mind that. I don't mind paying a little more tax 'cause I make a good living. But I don't want to get it coming and going. I don't want to get the federal raised and then the state raised and then the phone tax raised and then the television tax raised and then the city tax. Back off me!" --entertainer Whoopi Goldberg
"[M]any of us are hoping that all those in power fail, because those in power have a grating habit of being annoyingly self-righteous, hopelessly corrupt, resolutely incompetent and completely apathetic about the freedoms that they have sworn to protect. Embrace the failure. It's patriotic." --columnist David Harsanyi
"Obama brags -- albeit dishonestly -- that he's only raising taxes on rich people. Ninety-five percent of the American people will get a tax cut, the president insists. Well, which is it? Do the times demand shared sacrifice from us all, or from just 5 percent of Americans? If I say to 10 co-workers, 'We all need to chip in together to get this done,' and then say, 'So, Todd, open your wallet and give five bucks to everyone else in the room,' it would sound ridiculous. But when Obama says the same thing to 300 million Americans it's called 'leadership.'" --columnist Jonah Goldberg
"President Obama defended his plan for higher taxes on the rich. He is determined to level out the distribution of wealth in America. It wasn't historic enough for him to be our first black president, he also wants to be our first red one." --comedian Argus Hamilton
Jay Leno:
There's talk President Barack Obama wants to lift trade restrictions with Cuba, which is great news for anybody here looking to buy a '58 Buick.
Astronomers say they have discovered enormous black holes five billion light years from Earth that is sucking up everything in their path. They name the black holes "AIG-1" and "AIG-2."
Politicians in the state of Iowa have voted to rename their Department of Elder Affairs. They're changing the name to the Department of Aging. Have they thought this through? I mean, now, elderly people will be calling the DOA.
Well according to National Enquirer, John Edwards has admitted to his wife that he fathered a love child with his mistress. Is it really a love child? Isn't it more like a "hurry up before my wife gets home" child?
Read more great articles at The Patriot Post.US
Posted By DoNotTreadOnMe
Beijing, China -- Sources at the United States Embassy in Beijing China have just CONFIRMED to me that the United States of America has tendered to China a written agreement which grants to the People's Republic of China, an option to exercise Eminent Domain within the USA, as collateral for China's continued purchase of US Treasury Notes and existing US Currency reserves!
The written agreement was brought to Beijing by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton and was formalized and agreed-to during her recent trip to China.
This means that in the event the US Government defaults on its financial obligations to China, the Communist Government of China would be permitted to physically take -- inside the USA -- land, buildings, factories, perhaps even entire cities - to satisfy the financial obligations of the US government.
Put simply, the feds have now actually mortgaged the physical land and property of all citizens and businesses in the United States. They have given to a foreign power, their Constitutional power to "take" all of our property, as actual collateral for continued Chinese funding of US deficit spending and the continued carrying of US national debt.
This is an unimaginable betrayal of every man, woman and child in the USA. An outrage.
I am endeavoring to obtain images or copies of the actual document but in the interim, several different sources both in the US and in China have CONFIRMED this to me.
More details as they become available. . . . . spread the word ASAP.
-------------- UPDATE 1:40 pm EST
Eminent Domain is the power of government to TAKE private property for public use without the consent of the property owner. Under our Constitution, the government can only "take" when providing "just compensation" for what they've taken.
Who decides what constitutes "just compensation?" The government!
Homeowners who felt the government was not paying them enough for property in past "takings" have filed lawsuits. In absolutely every such case, the value placed upon the property by the government was upheld by the courts.
Our federal government has now granted to China, this power to "take"our homes and businesses in the event the US Gov't defaults on its debts. Let's play this out as a worst case scenario. . . . . .
The US Gov't goes belly-up and China comes in and says, "they owed us $2 Trillion in Treasury Notes and another $2 Trillion in actual cash money which is now worthless. We are taking the entire state of Hawaii and the entire state of California in lieu of this bad debt. "
With the stroke of a Chinese chop stick, Hawaii and California -- all the land and buildings in those states -- are now owned by China.
The "taking" would be a "valid public use" because it was "taken" in payment of the public debt!!!!
China could then turn around and declare the value of all that land to be worth. . . . . I dunno, ten cents on a dollar?
For your $200,000 house, you get a Chinese check for $20,000.
Needless to say, the property owners would go ballistic and demand "just compensation" for what was taken. Who gets to decide what is "just?" China! Don't think you got a fair price for what they took? No problem, sue China.
You'll lose.
People who live in those states and own their land outright, might be able to negotiate with China to "rent" back their own property, as long as the property owner continued to pay all his taxes; but the land and buildings would belong to China!
This is what our own Government has just done to us and it is the single most vile act of betrayal in the history of human existence.
------------- SECOND UPDATE 3:48 PM
In early February nine U.S. States began the process of re-asserting their Sovereignty pursuant to the Ninth and Tenth Amendments to the US Constitution; declaring null and void any actions by Congress that violated the Constitution.
At the time, I wrote about those state efforts (Here) and wondered why so many states were taking-up such an arcane issue in such a seemingly urgent fashion. I guess now, we know why.
The states were obviously privy to what the feds were planning to do with granting Eminent Domain to China. The states took action to make certain the feds couldn't give away cities or the states themselves!
This situation is going to get VERY ugly, VERY fast as one sovereign power (the feds) try to literally give away the land of other sovereign powers, (the states). This is the type of thing that starts civil wars.
Our present federal government makes the treachery and betrayal of Benedict Arnold look like child's play.
China Needs U.S. Guarantees for Treasuries, Yu Says
http://www.abovetopsecret.com/forum/t...
http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pi...
For those who have been most grievously affected by the liberal agendas that seeded the housing and financial market crisis, those of you who have lost your job, had your income cut and your savings and retirement funds gutted, help is just a click away.
Visit the Federal Election Commission's campaign finance disclosure page, and under the map, select the search criterion menu "Donor's Name" and change that criterion to "Zip Code." Enter your zip code and click "Go." (This search may take up to a minute, so be patient.)
Once the search is complete, select the column to search by "Candidate Name," and scroll down to see all the donors in your neighborhood who supported Obama.
Since they enabled Obama to redistribute your wealth, surely they would be willing to share some of their own to cover your expenses until Obama's recovery plan has restored your job, your income, your savings and your retirement fund.
(Heck, you might even find, as I did, that one of your neighbors far exceeded the legal giving limits to Obama's campaign.)
Read the rest of the article here: ObamaNation -- The USSA
Thanks to The Patriot Post.US
This is great for Republicans as long as they keep opposing these bailouts and harp on Barry and the Socialists’ reckless spending plans for the country. All voters see now is a Democrat Congress throwing taxpayer money down the toilet, with no end in sight.
From Rasmussen.When your enemy is in the process of destroying himself, stay out ofis way. We’ll just wait over here. See you in 2010 fellas.Approval of Congress’ job performance is down to single digits again for the first time since early September.
The latest Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters found that only nine percent (9%) give Congress good or excellent ratings, while 54% give the legislature poor marks. Just one-out-of-50 voters (2%) think Congress is doing an excellent job.
The last time the ratings were this low was on September 9. In late November, 12% gave Congress good or excellent ratings. This is now the fifth time congressional ratings have fallen below 10% since June 1.
Since the election when Democrats grew their majorities in both the House and Senate, Congress has been in the news struggling unsuccessfully to pass an unpopular bailout plan for the Big Three automakers.
Even only 14% of Democratic voters rate the performance of the Congress led by their own party as good or excellent, compared to five percent (5%) of Republicans and six percent (6%) of unaffiliated voters.
Read more Great Posts by Bill Dupray at The Patriot Room
Actually it seems to me that it is the whole world that is now "caught in the cross-hairs"
We are all exposed!
Read More Dry Bones by Yaakov Kirschen
