The day’s top political news:
Achim Steiner, head of the U.N. environment agency: Investments of $750 billion could create a "Green New Deal" to revive the world economy and protect the environment, perhaps aided by a tax on oil.
"The opportunity must not be lost," Steiner, head of UNEP, told Reuters of a study that will be put to world leaders meeting in London on April 2 to work out how to spur the ailing economy.
THE UN LEVYING TAXES? The UNEP report said investments of one percent of global gross domestic product, or about $750 billion, could bankroll a "Global Green New Deal". Granting the UN a power to tax the US should be a plan that is DOA.
Steiner also said that the world urgently needed funds to jump start a U.N. deal to fight global warming, due to be agreed in Copenhagen in December to succeed the U.N.'s Kyoto Protocol beyond 2012. The Bush administration refused to sign the infamous Kyoto Protocol.
http://www.reuters.com/article/environmentNews/idUSTRE52I09T20090319?sp=true
In a dramatic reversal Wednesday, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., was forced to confess to adding language to the stimulus bill that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts signed before the bill's passage.
"As many know, the administration was, among others, not happy with the language. They wanted some modifications to it," he said. "They came to us, our staff, and asked for changes, and the changes at the time did not seem that obnoxious or onerous."
But the provision has become a flash point for criticism amid the controversy over $165 million in bonuses given out by AIG after securing more than $170 billion in federal aid. The language in the stimulus bill wasn't specific to AIG, but some have expressed outrage that it appears to have created a loophole.
Dodd’s struggle trying to lie out of his direct involvement has failed, thanks in part to the power of video clips showing his changing story and refusal to come clean until trapped by his own words.
Pelosi Tells Illegal Immigrants That Work Site Raids are Un-American
The Speaker decries upholding the nation’s immigration laws…assaults the acts of US immigration agents
References to myths of agents “kicking in doors in the middle of the night” – political lies – peppered the Speaker’s pro illegal speech.
Referring to work site enforcement actions by ICE agents, Pelosi said, "We have to have a change in policy and practice and again ... I can't say enough, the raids must end. The raids must end.
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/03/18/pelosi-tells-illegal-immigrants-work-site-raids-american/
GOP lawmakers criticize probe of Arizona sheriff
Ten Republican congressmen argue that a civil rights investigation of the Maricopa County Sheriff's Office could have a chilling effect on other state and local police agencies that seek to crack down on illegal immigration.
The congressmen, responding to a Department of Justice probe into allegations of discrimination and unconstitutional searches and seizures by the sheriff's office, asked Attorney General Eric Holder to voice support for vigorous immigration enforcement and assure police agencies that they won't face similar investigations.
Sheriff Joe Arpaio said the probe was prompted by his immigration efforts, including his crime and immigration sweeps of some heavily Latino areas in metropolitan Phoenix. Arpaio denied allegations that his deputies racially profiled people during the sweeps and called the investigation politically motivated.
“Go Sheriff Joe”.
http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090319/D97120C80.html
Opinion:
Normal America senses an invitation to a victory
A prominent JFK advisor once authored a book on politics entitled” “There are no final victories” – Obama now understands what the title implied.
You”ve seen the survival videos showing the steps in starting fires in the woods.
Politics can resemble that process. First a small spark is struck and then very carefully encouraged with measured blowing until the glow becomes a small flame. Twigs are carefully added, then larger and larger twigs. Then sticks go on the growing fired, and finally logs are added to the pyre as flames leap heavenward.
Political movements work much the same way.
Republicans have been striking steel to flint, hoping to get a spark. Yesterday, pollsters reported the GOP has achieved that first, meager sign of political life and the hope that goes with it. The GOP v Democrat ballot shows the GOP with a 2 point lead. Not enough for wild celebration, but certainly enough of a flame to begin adding twigs, maybe even a stick or two.
Obama and his Democrats are bringing us the fuel:
Senator Chris Dodd is caught lying his head off about his being responsible for the AIG bonuses.
Speaker Nancy Pelosi is filmed attacking our immigration laws and (incredibly) calling illegals aliens “patriotic”.
Obama chimes in with an outrageous proposal for charging military veterans a tax on their healthcare – taxing real American heroes by a president who sneers at them and at patriotism in general.
Obama’s only connection with the military is his obsession with spending like a drunken sailor – and we apologize to all sailors everywhere. Even drunken sailors are far more patriotic than Obama.
I could go on – but the news piles in every day and the pile grows ever higher.
Karl Roves chimes in:
Buddy
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123742266398778963.html
Obama Gives the GOP an Opening
KARL ROVE
President Barack Obama and his West Wing lieutenants are playing on the world's largest stage, yet act as if no one is watching them when they contradict their campaign promises. That behavior is unwittingly giving the Republicans an opening.
For example, Team Obama thinks the president, having spent a good portion of the campaign decrying the $2.9 trillion in deficits during the Bush years, can now double the national debt held by the public in 10 years. Having condemned earmarks during the campaign, the Obama administration now believes it can wave through 8,500 of them in the omnibus-spending bill, part of the biggest spending increase since World War II.
With the Dow at 7,486 and unemployment at 8.1%, Mr. Obama says the economy is fundamentally sound. Does he suppose the nation won't recall him attacking John McCain last September for saying the same thing -- when the Dow was at 11,000 and unemployment at 6.2%?
Candidate Obama vowed to end "the same partisanship and pettiness and immaturity that has poisoned our politics." Yet his administration geared up MoveOn.org to lead a left-wing coalition to pressure Republicans and centrist Democrats, organized a daily conference call to coordinate liberal attack dogs, and strategized with Americans United for Change on ads depicting the GOP as the party of "no."
Rather than working with Republicans on the budget, the administration attacked them as mindless obstructionists. Yet the administration's policies are not nearly as popular as one might suppose.
For example, the liberal Center for American Progress recently found that 61% of Americans say government spending is almost always wasteful and inefficient, and 57% think free market solutions are better than government at creating jobs and economic growth. A late February poll by NBC News/Wall Street Journal found that 61% were concerned "the federal government will spend too much money" and "drive up the budget deficit" versus 29% concerned the government "will spend too little."
These general attitudes translate into opposition to specific policy initiatives. For example, CBS found support for the stimulus bill falling to 51% in February from 63% in January. Meanwhile, opposition to more money to bail out banks rose to 53% in March from 44% in February.
This, in turn, is affecting Mr. Obama's job approval ratings, already just average for a new president. Last week's Pew poll showed Mr. Obama's approval at 59% with 26% disapproval, down from February's 64% approval and 17% disapproval. His standing on the economy is also falling: Newsweek found in January that 71% were confident Mr. Obama would be able to turn around the economy, while 26% were not. By March, his ratings had fallen to 65% confident, 33% not.
Republicans sense the opportunity. The House GOP leadership deputized the top Budget Committee Republican, Paul Ryan of Wisconsin, to prepare an alternative budget. The GOP budget won't raise taxes, gets spending and debt under control, and will result in a stronger economy with more jobs. House Republicans plan a major selling effort back home during the coming recess. Minority Leader John Boehner is already up on YouTube extolling the plan.
Senate Republicans will not prepare a complete alternative, but they will offer a robust package of amendments, with a wave of proposals for each of the three weeks the upper chamber will devote to the budget. Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell and Republican Conference Chairman Lamar Alexander foreshadowed the GOP's theme by saying the Democratic budget taxes, spends and borrows too much.
Sen. Alexander is also working with Sen. Judd Gregg, the ranking Budget Committee Republican, on a statement of budget principles that sharpens the contrast between the two parties' approaches to America's economic future.
The GOP's challenge is winning attention for its vision. True, its megaphone isn't nearly as big as those of the White House and the Congressional Democratic majorities, and Mr. Obama still has the upper hand. Yet by discarding so much of what people found appealing in him, Mr. Obama may change that.
Every president eventually depletes his political capital. Some have done so advancing great, difficult causes. Others squander it because of missteps, and what the public views as breaches of faith. Having been president for all of eight weeks, Mr. Obama retains much residual goodwill and could still change course on the budget to reach across the aisle. But his current strategy has made him weaker than he was and weaker than he needs to be. It's turning into a costly two months for America's 44th president.
Mr. Rove is the former senior adviser and deputy chief of staff to President George W. Bush.
The day’s top blogs:
Now to more blogs, but first, an overview:
1.
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/cowardly-bill-ayers-seeks-police-protection/
Cowardly Bill Ayers Seeks Police Protection
Cliff Kincaid
Now it appears that Ayers is even afraid to engage tough critics in verbal exchanges.
It’s been quite a turnaround for Bill Ayers. The Communist terrorist who planned bombings of police stations, in order to inflict maximum injury and death on police officers, is now depending on the police at the University of Illinois, where he is a “distinguished” professor, to protect him from the tough questions of student parents. In fact, one parent who presented Ayers with a Bible and a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was arrested last Thursday night and charged with the curious offense of somehow interfering with university affairs. A visibly-nervous Ayers accepted the books but quickly placed them down on a table.
Mark Thompson, the parent of the University of Illinois student, is scheduled to be in court on March 18, Wednesday, to face possible charges and be prosecuted for daring to confront Ayers.
(Ayers, of course, escaped prosecution on his declaring war on the US and bombing American buildings – he chortles at escaping honest prosecution)
2.
Barney's Frank says he'll fix Fannie Mae; breaks irony-meter
A headline in this evening's Wall Street Journal reads "Frank Prepares Bill to Revamp Fannie, Freddie".
Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he hopes to introduce legislation later this year to restructure government-backed mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... "The current model is broken," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Tuesday...
(Barney’s having lied about the reality of Freddie and Fanny and his making certain his live in lover was rewarded as an official – is well known by all who have followed this story. Barney knows neither pride nor shame)
3.
The left and their threat to free speech
MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
The Left is launching a new and more deceptive strategy to implement the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine -- under different names and without a vote in Congress. But their goal remains the same – the silencing of conservative and Christian talk radio.
This stealth tactic was exposed in the last few weeks as grassroots opposition from friends like you threw a wrench in their plans to openly impose the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine
4.
The Obama pledge
Thomas Lifson
Another polarizing move from Barack Obama. His permanent campaign is organizing a political organization loyal to him, bound by a pledge, outside the government and existing party apparatus. The historical precedents are ominous. Only this time around the Obama organization supplies YouTube videos on how to organize, and social networking software connects them.
Now, the complete articles:
1.
http://www.aim.org/aim-column/cowardly-bill-ayers-seeks-police-protection/
Cowardly Bill Ayers Seeks Police Protection
Cliff Kincaid
Now it appears that Ayers is even afraid to engage tough critics in verbal exchanges.
It’s been quite a turnaround for Bill Ayers. The Communist terrorist who planned bombings of police stations, in order to inflict maximum injury and death on police officers, is now depending on the police at the University of Illinois, where he is a “distinguished” professor, to protect him from the tough questions of student parents. In fact, one parent who presented Ayers with a Bible and a copy of Ayn Rand’s Atlas Shrugged was arrested last Thursday night and charged with the curious offense of somehow interfering with university affairs. A visibly-nervous Ayers accepted the books but quickly placed them down on a table.
Mark Thompson, the parent of the University of Illinois student, is scheduled to be in court on March 18, Wednesday, to face possible charges and be prosecuted for daring to confront Ayers.
Ayers and his wife, Bernardine Dohrn, have been denounced as "murderous cowards" for planting anti-personnel time bombs that killed police when they and members of their Weather Underground Communist terrorist group had safely fled the scene. Now it appears that Ayers is even afraid to engage tough critics in verbal exchanges.
This wouldn't be the first time. When Ayers gave a speech at St. Mary's College in California on January 28, the question-and-answer period was cut short before Larry Grathwohl, a former FBI informant in the Weather Underground, was about to ask a question. Grathwwohl has charged that Ayers planned bombings intended to kill police and that Ayers confided in him that Dohrn had planted the bomb that killed San Francisco Police Sergeant Brian V. McDonnell on February 16, 1970. “This bomb contained fence staples and was placed on a window ledge during a shift change ensuring the presence of the greatest number of police officers and the greatest possibility of death and injury,” Grathwohl has said.
Retired San Francisco Police Officer Jim Pera, one of the first on the scene, said that McDonnell took shrapnel, consisting of fence-post staples, through his eyes, throat and brain. He died two days later.
According to Lt. Roy Acree of the University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign Police Department, parent Mark Thompson was arrested on a charge of “interference with a public institution of higher education” because of his activity at the Ayers lecture. Ironically, the statute (720 ILCS 5/Art. 21.2 heading) was passed "in recognition of unlawful campus disorders across the nation," which is precisely what Ayers and his comrades in the Students for a Democratic Society were doing on college campuses in the 1960s.
The law was designed to squelch activities "which are disruptive of the educational process, dangerous to the health and safety of persons, damaging to public and private property, and which divert the use of institutional facilities from the primary function of education..."
Acree said it was his understanding that the law is designed to prohibit somebody from interfering with the institution’s “day-to-day operations.” He acknowledged that the statute was originally meant to apply to disruptions of university board of trustee meetings, presumably by campus radicals.
According to the official calendar of the event, Ayers, identified as a school reform activist and Distinguished Professor of Education at the University of Illinois at Chicago, was speaking as a “Unit One/Allen Hall Guest-in-Residence” during the nights of March 9-12, and all events were “open to the public.” This occurred on the Urbana-Champaign campus.
On the night of March 8, there was a screening of “The Weather Underground,” described as “the Oscar-nominated documentary about Bill Ayers and the rise and fall of this radical movement.”
The dates and titles of the programs were:
• March 9: Yes We Can: Reflections on Campaign 2008
• March 10: Fugitive Days [the title of Ayers book about his days in the terrorist Weather Underground]
• March 11: Education for Democracy
• March 12: The New Activism
Thompson, who attended every session with Ayers, believes that Ayers is a “political pedophile” who engages in the socialist brainwashing of America’s college students.
Ironically, Ayers was speaking on the subject of “activism.” Thompson counters: “If anything I was the perfect case study for a lecture on ‘the new activism,’ as the evening [March 12] lecture was titled.”
Decide for yourself: a YouTube video, recorded by one of Thompson’s friends, captures the event. While it shows Thompson engaging in what could arguably be said to be obnoxious behavior at certain points, during the question-and answer period following the Ayers lecture, there is no indication that he threatened Ayers or disrupted the event before campus police arrested him.
While local papers portrayed Thompson as an angry and confrontational man who resisted arrest, he replies, “I never once disrupted the speech. I made a point to let him spew his rhetoric, so I would have the ammunition to rebut him. I only interjected when Q and A time arrived.”
“I confessed that I intended to be arrested,” Thompson says. “But the idea that I resisted arrest is crazy. View the video. If that is resisting or obstructing an officer, wow. That part is absolutely false.”
Thompson, whose daughter attends one of the University of Illinois campuses, has made it his mission to expose and challenge Ayers. “Only in America can an admitted Anarchist, terrorist bomber, Socialist and communist sympathizer become one of the nation’s foremost educational leaders in curriculum development, from pre-school to post graduate, to teaching teachers,” Thompson says. “Bill Ayers’ influence can’t be overstated, as the vice president of ‘curriculum development’ for the American Educational Research Association, the largest organization of its kind comprising over 25,000 professors and researchers.”
Acree told AIM that Thompson had said that he figured his actions would get him arrested, and that he apologized to the police officers who arrested him later. Still, what did Thompson do that broke the law?
“I wasn’t there,” Acree said, although he did watch the incident on YouTube. “I felt like at that time that Thompson was at the point of interrupting the speaker, who was an invited guest of the university, and was preventing the speaker from speaking.”
But the video seems to show that the meeting was breaking up at that point.
Thompson, a Christian, wanted Ayers to have a copy of the Bible as an expression of concern for his well-being. He also wanted Ayers to take Ayn Rand’s book Atlas Shrugged and give it to his friend, President Barack Obama. He believes the book should also be used in educational classrooms. “That would be the most bang for your tax dollar buck, to educate in the matters of the free market American mindset as well as Socialism’s foundational flaws, as history has proven over and over,” he says.
He is also adamant that Ayers should be dismissed from the University of Illinois and that the state government should create a commission to investigate the subversion of our educational system by Ayers and his ilk.
2.
Barney's Frank says he'll fix Fannie Mae; breaks irony-meter
A headline in this evening's Wall Street Journal reads "Frank Prepares Bill to Revamp Fannie, Freddie".
Rep. Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, said he hopes to introduce legislation later this year to restructure government-backed mortgage investors Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac... "The current model is broken," the Massachusetts Democrat said in an interview Tuesday...
...Federal regulators seized management control of Fannie and Freddie in September as heavy losses stemming largely from mortgage defaults ate through their thin layers of capital. For 2008, Fannie and Freddie reported combined losses of about $108 billion, forcing the Treasury to pump in capital to keep them operating...
Anthony Sanders, a finance professor at Arizona State University, recommends leaving Fannie and Freddie intact but subjecting them to better regulation and requiring them to hold more capital. He also suggests barring them from holding large amounts of mortgages and related securities. That would leave the companies to focus on creating and guaranteeing mortgage securities that would be held by others.
Better regulation and more capital?
Better regulation and more capital??
Better regulation and more capital???
In hearing after hearing, Frank and his Democratic cronies blocked "better regulation" and higher capital requirements for the GSEs. Time after time, month after month, year after year.
Here's Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) in 2003, helping to block a GOP bill ("H.R. 2575—THE SECONDARY MORTGAGE MARKET ENTERPRISES REGULATORY IMPROVEMENT ACT") that would require -- you guessed it -- enhanced regulatory oversight and higher capital-to-asset thresholds.
I think it is clear that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac are sufficiently secure so they are in no great danger... I don't think we face a crisis; I don't think that we have an impending disaster. ....Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac do very good work, and they are not endangering the fiscal health of this country.
Here's Rep. Barney Frank testifying later:
I don't see any financial crisis.
And now, Barney Frank, the same crustacean that helped cause the mortgage meltdown in the first place, suggests the kind of oversight that he helped block. Brilliant.
Can someone explain to me why Barney Frank isn't in prison?
3.
The left and their threat to free speech
MEDIA RESEARCH CENTER
David,
The Left is launching a new and more deceptive strategy to implement the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine -- under different names and without a vote in Congress. But their goal remains the same – the silencing of conservative and Christian talk radio.
This stealth tactic was exposed in the last few weeks as grassroots opposition from friends like you threw a wrench in their plans to openly impose the so-called “Fairness” Doctrine. Now, Obama’s Federal Communications Commission (FCC) is preparing to use regulatory terms like “diversity,” “localism” and serving the Left’s definition of the “public interest” as new, backdoor “Fairness” Doctrines to indirectly impose this radio censorship.
How “diversity,” “localism” and serving the Left’s definition of the “public interest” will lead to censorship
Obama’s acting FCC Chairman, Michael Copps, says he believes the government has a role in enforcing media “diversity” -- including the re-examination of station licensing and making popular conservative and Christian radio programming somehow “more reflective” of “public interest!”
David, isn’t the public interest best served by what the public is interested in? Don’t the many, many satisfied listeners conservative and Christian talk radio has all across the country indicate that these stations are already serving the public interest?
Copps added that given the new political climate, “we have a tremendous opportunity going forward to reinvigorate our media, to ensure that the public airwaves truly deliver the kind of news and information that we need to sustain our democratic dialouge and to reflect the great diversity of our country.”
In other words, liberals are tired of losing the battle of the airwaves, so their plan is to silence conservative and Christian talk in the name of “diversity,” “localsim” and service of their definition of the “public interest.” No Congressional vote is necessary. Obama’s FCC can impose any of these new “Fairness” Doctrines by simply enforcing their Leftist interpretations of already existing regulatory powers .
We Must Be Ready…
With this new liberal strategy now exposed, we must work to further strengthen our effort. The next key flashpoint in this debate over these new “Fairness” Doctrines is the pending confirmation hearings for Julius Genachowski as Obama’s FCC Chairman. That’s why I have decided to hold back on our petition delivery until the Genachowski confirmation hearings are convened.
We want – we need -- your voices to be heard when it matters most.
These hearings have not yet been scheduled, but we expect an announcement soon. Until then, I want the entire MRC Action Team focused on rallying critically needed extra support for our petition -- for delivery at the time of the hearings so as to ensure maximum impact.
Currently, your name is not included on this important effort.
In order to be included in this vital effort to preserve conservative speech, you must sign the petition. Please go here now.
After carefully looking over this new liberal strategy to silence the conservative voice, I am more convinced than ever that they will boldly move forward with their plans just as soon as Obama’s new FCC chairman is in place. That’s why we must react strongly when the time comes, and continue to grow our numbers until they do.
Because of the media’s dishonest reporting, tens of millions of Americans are wrongly convinced that there is no longer a threat to free speech on the airwaves. David, you and I both know this isn’t true.
Help bring the message of truth to light by forwarding this message today—urging your friends to take action with you.
As always, thank you for standing with the MRC.
David Martin
4.
The Obama pledge
Thomas Lifson
Another polarizing move from Barack Obama. His permanent campaign is organizing a political organization loyal to him, bound by a pledge, outside the government and existing party apparatus. The historical precedents are ominous. Only this time around the Obama organization supplies YouTube videos on how to organize, and social networking software connects them.
Steve Gilbert was among the first to point it out:
Anyone who is a student of totalitarian regimes, especially Nazi Germany, should recognize this tactic. Mr. Obama has organized his own cadre of Brown Shirts (or, if you prefer, Red Shirts) to agitate for his agenda.
Mr. Alinsky would be proud. And rightly so. For this is simply the continuation of Mr. Obama's perpetual campaign. A campaign, as we noted at the time, that was modeled on Saul Alinsky's organizing principles.
Lona Manning points out that we were warned by Michelle Obama about this:
“Barack Obama will require you to work. He is going to demand that you shed your cynicism.. That you put down your divisions. That you come out of your isolation, that you move out of your comfort zones. That you push yourselves to be better. And that you engage. Barack will never allow you to go back to your lives as usual, uninvolved, uninformed.”
Notice that by taking the pledge, Obama believers foreclose any discussion of any issues. Barack Obama by definition is always right, once they have pledged personal loyalty.
This is not the way a Republic is supposed to operate.
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