Fannie-stein

When the federal government plays mad scientist, it doesn't destroy the monster it realizes it's built. Instead, after wreaking global economic havoc, Fannie Mae gets the taxpayers' blank check. The Federal National Mortgage Association, "Fannie Mae," a mutant hybrid with the worst features of government agency and private business, holds about $6 trillion in mortgages. Now it wants another $8.4 billion in cash. More largesse for Fannie and its equally evil twin, the Federal Home Loan Mortgage Corp., "Freddie Mac," is like emptying a dump truck full of taxpayer cash down a bottomless pit. In its 12th straight quarterly loss, the mortgage behemoth consumed $11.5 billion in this year's first quarter. That's an improvement: A year ago, Fannie lost twice as much. Why would American taxpayers pay billions to keep these monsters alive?...more

Sen. Shelby: Financial Reform Violates Privacy

Sen. Richard Shelby (R-Ala.), senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee, said that provisions in the new financial regulatory bill violate privacy rights by allowing the government to collect any financial information it wants from any financial institution it wants. “The Democrats’ new bureaucracy poses a threat to our privacy,” Shelby said, “Under section 1022 of their bill, the new bureau would collect any information it chooses from businesses and consumers including personal characteristics and financial information. “Individuals could be required to provide the new agency with written answers--under oath--to any question posed by the bureau regarding their personal financial information.”...more

California: The American Greece

What do Europe's most bankrupt nation-state and America's most bankrupt united state have in common, aside from being bankrupt? In what is undoubtedly a coincidence noticed only by free-market fundamentalists, it turns out that Greece, that sun-drenched paradise on the Aegean, and California, that sun-warmed El Dorado on the Pacific, are the worst places to do business in their respective economic zones. Greece manages to drive out business activity with a vengeance rarely seen in Europe. In the World Bank's Doing Business 2010 [pdf] survey, Greece came in 109th place worldwide, sandwiched between countries on the go Lebanon and Guatemala. That lands the cradle of democracy dead last in the European Union for business friendliness...more

Tea party movement ousts Sen. Bob Bennett in Utah

The “tea party” movement has carved a major notch in its political pistol grip. At the GOP nominating convention in Salt Lake City Saturday, Sen. Bob Bennett (R) of Utah came in a distant third behind two other Republican candidates vying for the Senate seat Mr. Bennett has held for three terms. Bennett is generally considered to be conservative – he favors gun rights and tighter immigration controls, and he has a lifetime rating of 84 percent from the American Conservative Union. But he was targeted by tea partyers for his 2008 vote in favor of the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP) bank bailout. Bennett also had co-sponsored a bipartisan bill to mandate health insurance coverage (although he eventually voted against the health care reform bill President Obama signed)...more

GOP starts cleaning house in Utah

Is the GOP starting to remember its roots and recover the principles the party once stood for under Ronald Reagan? If the recent ousting of US Senator Bob Bennett in Utah is any indication, the answer is a resounding yes. For Utah Republicans, it seems Bennett’s vote for the Wall Street bailout and his support for a bill that would mandate health insurance were too egregious to send the Senator back to Washington to represent the state. Bennett also voted for Medicare Part D, the prescription drug entitlement, and is notorious for earmarking. The Utah GOP made the right decision to send him packing. Bennet’s ousting demonstrates an energized, limited-government conservative movement that has not existed since Ronald Reagan led the party. With help from tea party activists, conservative principles are becoming en vogue again. Of course, thanks should also be bestowed on President Obama for advancing such overtly leftist policies most Americans right find abhorrent; his agenda has reignited the liberty movement’s flame. The GOP has the opportunity, this election cycle, to restore credibility with the American people by fielding candidates who oppose the rapid, unfettered expansion of government and promote liberty-minded policies aimed at reforming decades of broken government programs and processes, and most importantly, drain the trough of benefits and entitlements that special interest feed from...more

DeMint Declares for Paul

Few were surprised this week when Jim DeMint endorsed Rand Paul in his bid for US Senate in Kentucky. That the man many consider the most conservative member of the Senate endorsed the son of the man many consider the most conservative member of Congress is indicative of DeMint’s genuine commitment to what most consider traditional Republican principles. Likewise, that GOP Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell so vehemently opposes Paul and has so enthusiastically endorsed his opponent is indicative of his commitment to the Republican status quo-at the expense of genuine conservatism. Rand Paul has gone from relative obscurity to a serious contender for the US Senate because he has articulated a sound, common sense conservative message at an uncommon time. There is a genuine, rising fear about runaway spending and debt today, and whereas Republicans in the past have been able to convince voters they loved guns or loathed gays enough for constituents to ignore their big government records, the current Tea Party-influenced political environment seems to be, finally, a rejection of that never-ending cycle. The Tea Party folks in Kentucky and those who sympathize with them, see supporting Paul as a chance to tell Washington they’re not going to take it anymore. The problem is the Republican establishment wants these voters to keep taking it...more

The ‘Tea Party’ of the 1930s

The past year’s tea party movement is not the first popular uprising against an overtaxing, encroaching, economy-stifling government. Though its past version seems not to have involved much in the way of street demonstrations, it may have been even stronger than the modern phenomenon, at least so far. As noted later, it will be difficult to exceed its electoral performance. No less a luminary that Michael Barone rediscovered this largely forgotten history while creating his latest book, Our Country: The Shaping of America from Roosevelt to Reagan. Barone, correctly described as “one of the most learned political observers of our time,” was the first person to characterize the Obama administration’s modus operandi as “Gangster Government” when he wrote in May of last year about how it bullied and shortchanged disfavored secured creditors during Chrysler’s bankruptcy proceedings. Visits to various items published during 1937 and 1938 reveal that the anti-New Deal sentiment Barone learned of had legs — and impact. President Obama’s stimulus bill passed in February of last year is what ignited an initial storm of protest that has been followed by a growing wave of political activism. In 1937, the equivalent spark was newly reelected President Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s February 1937 proposal, buttressed by a March fireside chat, to pack the Supreme Court with six additional justices friendly to the New Deal’s statism and hostile to the original intent of the Constitution. The fighting words from his address were these: “We have, therefore, reached the point as a nation where we must take action to save the Constitution from the Court and the Court from itself.” He didn’t lack nerve, did he? It wasn’t long before it became obvious that FDR had vastly overplayed his hand, as Obama would do 72 years later...more

“Woodstock” of tea parties planned Sept. 11 in western Iowa

An event described as the “Woodstock” of tea parties is planned for Sept. 11 at the Monona County Fairgrounds in Onawa in western Iowa. Craig Halverson of Griswold, who is helping to organize the event, said supporters hope to attract at least 1,000 people from Iowa, Nebraska, South Dakota, Minnesota and other states. He said they are inviting prominent conservative speakers and plan to have bands perform patriotic music. The event will have a “Take back our country” theme, Halverson said. Although the activities will occur on the ninth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks on New York and Washington, he said organizers don’t plan to spend the day reflecting on those events. [link]

Health care law's massive, hidden tax change

An all-but-overlooked provision of the health reform law is threatening to swamp U.S. businesses with a flood of new tax paperwork. Section 9006 of the health care bill -- just a few lines buried in the 2,409-page document -- mandates that beginning in 2012 all companies will have to issue 1099 tax forms not just to contract workers but to any individual or corporation from which they buy more than $600 in goods or services in a tax year. The stealth change radically alters the nature of 1099s and means businesses will have to issue millions of new tax documents each year...more

Tea Party Founder Named Most Influential - Video

The latest issue of "Time" magazine highlights the 100 most influential people. On that list is Georgian, Jenny Beth Martin, who is one of the founders of the Tea Party Patriots. On Wednesday, Martin discussed the movement, which claims 15 million members. Martin says the organization is critical of members of both parties. Eric Gray, the communication Director for the Democratic Party of Georgia voiced his concerns about the Tea Party movement in Georgia.

See video report here.

Dodd Financial Bill Creates ACORN for Risky Credit Applicants

Nearly every page of Senator Dodd’s 1400 page financial regulation bill, the Restoring American Financial Stability Act of 2010, aims to increase the scope of government. This long and complex legislation proposes new agencies, new divisions within old agencies, and a slew of other ways to expand the government’s reach. One overlooked portion of the financial regulation bill is Section. 1013. Contained within Section 1013 ((b)(2)), on page 1213, is a segment titled Community Affairs. In 33 words, Senator Dodd’s bill looks to replicate ACORN’s practices: “The Director shall establish a unit whose functions shall include providing information, guidance, and technical assistance regarding the offering and provision of consumer financial products or services to traditionally underserved consumers and communities.” ACORN, on its website, describes itself using similar language: “ACORN is the nation’s largest grassroots community organization of low- and moderate-income people... ACORN has been building community organizations that are committed to social and economic justice, and won victories on thousands of issues of concern to our members, through direct action, negotiation, legislative advocacy and voter participation.” Although ACORN’s website uses more obvious language, the goals of both the would-be Community Affairs department and ACORN are the same: force the government to provide loans to people who otherwise wouldn’t qualify for it...more

ObamaCare: According To Plan?

When Richard Foster, chief actuary of the Centers for Medicare and Medicaid Services, issued a report last month on the financial effects of the Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act, attention was fixed on his spending estimates, and rightly so: Overall health care spending would grow by $311 billion from 2010 to 2019 due to the Democrats' reform, while federal spending would rise by $211 billion over that same time. These figures are germane because health care reform was sold as the policy that would cut spending and bring down the deficit. President Obama promised the overhaul wouldn't add "one dime" to the deficit, which is probably that same dime he said he wouldn't raise taxes by on families earning less than $250,000 a year. Obama also promised that "nothing in this plan will require you or your employer to change the coverage or the doctor you have." And "if you like your health care plan," he said more than once, "you'll be able to keep your health care plan, period." Strictly speaking, that's correct. But left unsaid was the fact that lawmakers placed provisions in the law that will give companies incentives to drop workers from employer-sponsored medical plans. "Some smaller employers would be inclined to terminate their existing coverage, and companies with low average salaries might find it to their — and their employees' — advantage to end their plans," Foster wrote in his April 22 report. The actuary estimates that the law "would collectively reduce the number of people with employer-sponsored health coverage by about 14 million."...more

GOP showing in primaries revives talk about Tea Party viability

Mark the first round down, shakily, for Republican incumbents and party favorites. With one race in Ohio yet to be settled, Tea Party movement-backed challengers and other outsiders were shut out in competitive House and Senate primaries in three states Tuesday. While some Republican primary winners struggled — former Indiana senator Dan Coats’s comeback bid advanced with 40 percent of the vote in a five-way race — the results renewed a debate about the clout of the insurgents in the remaining primaries and on fall elections. Six months before the midterm elections, polls show a disaffected electorate. As a result, even Democrats concede Republicans are in line to make gains. “The big question is whether the Tea Party is a tempest in a teapot. Do they have the organizational capabilities to compete with the Republicans?’’ said John Feehery, a Republican strategist...more

"Find Us Before We Find You"

Orwellian tax collection commercial.

Florida candidate becomes first officeholder with Tea Party affiliation

Polk County Commissioner Randy Wilkinson may be the first official officeholder from the Tea Party. Wilkinson, running for Florida’s 12th District seat being vacated by Republican Rep. Adam Putnam, switched his party affiliation from Republican to Florida Tea Party last week. He is a county commissioner in Florida’s Polk County. “We’re excited,” said Fred O’Neal, founder of the Florida Tea Party. “Our first officeholder. We’re excited.” Of course, there are other self-identified Tea Party candidates across the country running as Republicans or independents, but Wilkinson appears to be the first elected official running on a Tea Party ticket affiliation. Wilkinson will face the Republican and Democrat candidates for the seat in November. According to a local Florida paper, Wilkinson was elected to the Polk County Commission as a Republican. But on campaign documents filed to run for Congress, he said he is now a member of the Florida Tea Party and is not registered with any other party...more

Democrats resist plan for border security bill

Despite mounting pressures for more border security in the wake of Arizona's illegal-immigration crackdown, lawmakers have no intention of tackling the problem at the federal level with legislation focused solely on border security. Instead, the Democratic majority in the House and Senate plan to attempt a comprehensive immigration reform bill that would create a pathway to citizenship for the millions who are here illegally. The sheer size and scope of such a measure virtually guarantees it cannot be passed this year, especially with the midterm elections approaching. This leaves Arizona and the other southwestern border states on their own in dealing with the escalating problem. Democrats know if they meet Republican demands for a narrow bill focused on border security, the chances of ever passing a citizenship program for illegals on its own will be greatly reduced...more

Look who Obama is nominating as judges

Hans Bader writes:

President Obama has nominated the controversialJudge Robert Chatigny to the U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit. Chatigny unsuccessfully attempted to block the execution of serial murderer and rapist Michael Ross, the “Roadside Strangler,” saying that his “sexual sadism” should be a mitigating factor barring his execution — even though Ross himself did not claim that his death-sentence was in any way inappropriate. Yet Democrats and even a few Republicans are likely to vote to confirm Chatigny.

Obama has also nominated the radical lawyer Goodwin Liu to the Ninth Circuit Court of Appeals. Liu is hostile to “’free enterprise, private ownership of property, and limited government.’ According to Liu, these are ‘code words for an ideological agenda hostile to environmental, workplace, and consumer protections.’” Liu also believes in “a constitutional right to welfare.“ Liu is also a big user of politically-correct psychobabble, writing that a judge is supposed to be a “culturally situated interpreter of social meaning” rather than an impartial umpire who interprets the law in accord with its plain meaning or its framers’ intent.

Bar association standards say lawyers are supposed to have practiced law for at least 12 years before being nominated to a judgeship, and should also have “substantial courtroom and trial experience.“ Liu has no trial experience, and had not even been out of law school for 12 years at the time he was nominated, meaning he was by definition unqualified under ABA standards. But a liberal ABA committee, showing ideological bias, rubberstamped his nomination anyway, ignoring his lack of the required qualifications, since its members shared his extreme political views...

Auto bill draft would require black boxes, "vehicle safety user fees"

All new cars would have to be equipped with "black boxes" that record performance data and federal safety regulators would be granted the authority to order immediate recalls under newly proposed auto-safety legislation being considered by Congress. The draft contains a wide array of provisions. Some require new safety features, such as the black boxes -- called event data recorders -- and brake override systems that allow a driver to stop a car even when the throttle is stuck open. Other elements of the bill give the National Highway Traffic Safety Administration more power to crack down on automakers that break the rules. The bill would create a "vehicle safety user fee," to be paid by manufacturers on each vehicle. The money would supplement NHTSA's budget. The fee begins at $3 per vehicle and increases to $9 after three years...more

It’s a sad day for Happy Meals in Santa Clara County

The governing body of Santa Clara County (in Ca. of course) has voted to ban all toys in Happy Meals.

Why? Is it because the little tikes will choke on the toys? Are they filled with lead or some other dangerous substance?

No, no. The LA Times enlightens us:

"This ordinance prevents restaurants from preying on children's' love of toys" to sell high-calorie, unhealthful food, said Supervisor Ken Yeager, who sponsored the measure.

If it wasn't for the toys all the children would be eating organic salads don't you see.

I sure wish they would quit putting toys in my Copenhagen.

Nearly Two-Thirds of Americans Say the Stimulus Isn’t Working

Nearly two-thirds of Americans do not believe the $787 billion stimulus package the president passed last year has helped create jobs, according to a new Pew Research Center poll.” As the Washington Examiner notes, “a recent survey of business economists showed they didn’t think the stimulus was creating jobs, either.” President Obama falsely claimed that virtually all economists supported his stimulus package, but this was patently untrue at the time he made this claim, when at least 200 economists publicly opposed it, and it is even more untrue now. Obama falsely claimed that the $787 billion stimulus package was needed to prevent “irreversible decline,” but the Congressional Budget Office admitted that it would actually shrink the economy “in the long run”. The stimulus package has since destroyed thousands of jobs in America’s export sector, and subsidized countless examples of government waste and corruption...more

Advice to the Tea Party from John Samples, author of 'The Struggle to Limit Government'

John Samples is director of the Cato Institute's Center for Representative Government and author of an important new book, "The Struggle to Limit Government," which is a history of the growth of Big Government since the Progressive Era and the so far mostly unsuccessful campaign by conservatives to restore limited government. Samples sat down recently to talk about the Tea Party movement and what its role might be. Among much else, Samples encourages Tea Party leaders to focus their efforts on restoring the federalist system established by the Constitution, with its great emphasis upon the rights and perogatives of the states. "People in the Tea Party movement often say they want the Constitution back," Samples said in the video. "Well, indeed, the Constitution is just the answer to some of the social issue questions. The Constitution of 1789 was about federalism, the states had a very important role to play in American government." That is the key for the Tea Party movement in dealing with what could be a source of disunity and weakness, divering views among potential allies of the movement and among Tea Partiers themselves, according to Samples...more

Tea Party movement likely to have unglamorous but effective future

On April 15, I covered the Cincinnati Tea Party rally for PJTV. It was quite a scene. There were more than 12,000 people in attendance, filling all but the nosebleed seats at the University of Cincinnati's basketball arena, and even though Sean Hannity was a last-minute no-show the crowd was fired up. When speaker Sonja Schmidt dubbed Barack Obama a "one-term president," the crowd roared, and delivered a standing ovation. The Service Employees International Union and Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now were booed, and various Ohio candidates and officeholders who stand for smaller government were cheered. Signs were waved ("Will Work For LIberty") and T-shirts were sold. But although that rally -- and the hundreds like it around the country that day -- was a scene of great excitement, that kind of excitement isn't the future of the Tea Party movement. The future, instead, is something much less glamorous, but much more important, than mass rallies and marches. For an example of what that means, look to the Utah Tea Party's campaign against incumbent Republican Sen. Robert Bennett. Bennett is a Republican, true enough, but his support for bailouts and big government has made him unpopular with Tea Partiers in Utah. They're planning to teach him a lesson...more

OBAMA CHEATING SCANDAL

PRESIDENT OBAMA has been caught in a shocking cheating scandal after being caught in a Washington, DC Hotel with a former campaign aide, sources say. And now, a hush-hush security video that shows everything could topple both Obama's presidency and marriage to Michelle! A confidential investigation has learned that Obama first became close to gorgeous 35 year-old VERA BAKER in 2004 when she worked tirelessly to get him elected to the US Senate, raising millions in campaign contributions. While Baker has insisted in the past that "nothing happened" between them, the ENQUIRER has learned that top anti-Obama operatives are offering more than $1 million to witnesses to reveal what they know about the alleged hush-hush affair. Among those being offered money is a limo driver who says that he took Vera to a secret hotel rendezvous where the President was staying...more

This is from The National Enquirer, so we shal see.

What Would Bill Buckley Think of the Tea Party?

Well, what would William F. Buckley Jr., founder of National Review and arguably the pre-eminent intellectual of the modern conservative movement until his 2008 death, say about the tea party movement? Having just published the first biography of Buckley in 22 years, I make bold to offer the following: • He would applaud the tea party's message of "We want government off our backs and out of our pockets." Throughout his life, Buckley firmly resisted governmental aggrandizement. "I will use my power as I see fit," he wrote. "I mean to live my life an obedient man, but obedient to God, subservient to the wisdom of my ancestors; never to the authority of political truths arrived at yesterday at the voting booth." • Buckley would like the tea party's determination to place principle above party, any party. He and National Review -- the magazine he founded and edited for 35 years -- did not hesitate to criticize both major political parties and their leaders whenever they deserved it. • Buckley would delight in the tea party's willingness to challenge the establishment. In National Review's very first issue, Buckley famously wrote that his magazine "stands athwart history yelling Stop." The growth of government, he said, "must be fought relentlessly."...more

Republicans pick Wall Street over free markets

Republican leaders have proven the Democrats right: The GOP's teeth gnashing about "permanent bailouts" was cynical populist showmanship -- and Republicans can't pull off that act as well as President Obama. By proposing a financial reform bill that is mostly identical to the one proposed by Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., Republicans have passed up an opportunity to simultaneously appeal to their base, by returning to their alleged principles of limited government, and appeal to much of the middle, by waging a populist battle against Wall Street's corporate-welfare queens who panhandle on Capitol Hill. Republicans favoring limited government over a "pro-Wall Street" policy would have been out of character, to be sure, but events were conspiring to make such a free-market populist stance possible. For one thing, the bankers had already abandoned the GOP. Wall Street was even longer on the Democrats in 2008 and 2009 than it had been on mortgage-backed securities in 2005 and 2006. You wouldn't know this reading most newspapers, but Obama raised more money from Wall Street than any candidate in history, and more money from Goldman Sachs than every Republican running for president, House, and Senate, combined...more



Read more at the Washington Examiner: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/columns/Republicans-pick-Wall-Street-over-free-markets-92451714.html#ixzz0mg09JsM9