Today’s Top Political News:
US bond yields spark concern
US long-term interest rates continued to test psychologically important levels on Thursday morning as investors worried about the level of national debt and whether the Federal Reserve might have to raise interest rates to combat inflation.
The yield on a 10-year Treasury note, the benchmark rate for US mortgages, briefly traded above 4 per cent, only to attract buyers once more, after weekly jobless claims and retail sales data were published in line with expectations.
The 10-year note was recently trading at 3.97 per cent, up 3 basis points, having hit 4 per cent during Wednesday after an auction of $19bn in 10-year government debt came at higher than expected yields.
http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/68ca2d04-55f2-11de-ab7e-00144feabdc0.html
Oil price leaps to year's high
Predictions of $250 a barrel on fears for oil reserves, hopes of economic recovery and hedging against weak dollar.
Bush actions a year ago, brought the price of gas on the pump plunging back down below $2.00 a gallon. Bush achieved the victory by removing the federal ban on off shore drilling and sending a signal this country was serious about becoming energy independent.
Almost immediately after being sworn in, the Obama administration reversed the Bush action, again banned off shore drilling – predictably, the price of gas began to climb. Brace for Obama gas prices rising above last year.
http://www.guardian.co.uk/business/2009/jun/10/oil-market-reserves
The 'Paygo' Coverup –
The Obama pattern: Spend, repent, spend again, repent.
Some things in politics you can't make up, such as President Obama's re-re-endorsement Tuesday of "pay-as-you-go" budgeting. Coming after $787 billion in nonstimulating stimulus, a $410 billion omnibus to wrap up fiscal 2009, a $3.5 trillion 2010 budget proposal, sundry bailouts and a 13-figure health-care spending expansion still to come.
Obama must think the press and public are dumb enough to buy it, because Tuesday he was re-selling the same "paygo" promises that Democrats roll out every election. Paygo is "very simple," the President claimed. "Congress can only spend a dollar if it saves a dollar elsewhere."
The truth is that paygo is the kind of budget gimmick that gives gimmickry a bad name. As Mr. Obama knows but won't tell voters, paygo only applies to new or expanded entitlement programs, not to existing programs such as Medicare, this year growing at a 9.2% annual rate. Nor does paygo apply to discretionary spending, set to hit $1.4 trillion in fiscal 2010, or 40% of the budget. The Democrat scam continues.
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124467627264104053.html
Opinion:
Liberal bigotry and corruption of the truth – a reality demonstrated daily by our media.
I’m waiting for the dreaded knock on my door at midnight.
According to Fox news commentator Shepard Smith, I am among those likely to shoot down people at sites such as the Holocaust Museum. Smith or a guest from Homeland Security – I forget which – suggested the shooting by a deranged long time hate monger, validated the outrageous Homeland Security memo recently released.
Law enforcement must have me targeted for arrest since I question Obama’s actual place of birth, oppose illegal immigration, and support our Second Amendment rights. After all, that’s the liberal message of the day – new efforts to again demonize their opponents and use tragedy to manipulate reactions and use the tragedies to attack those who differ with them.
In case you don’t recall which Homeland Security memo I cited, it was one that first, revealed the Homeland Security intelligence branch concludes those who oppose Obama and the actions of his administration are based on racial hatred. That analysis is beyond incompetent.
The overwhelming majority of those of us who oppose Obama do so because he is a left wing extremist. It has absolutely nothing to do with his race. We are seeing Obama using Jesse Jackson’s tactics – racial intimidation.
But Homeland Security has a political point to make – so they choose to target those who differ with Obama on such key issues as illegal immigration and abortion as potential targets for recruitment by terror groups. They stress veterans are particularly susceptible.
Okay, okay, I have to concede the shooter at the Holocaust Museum – James Von Brunn -- is a veterean. But a veteran of WWII! For the past three or more years, I have been involved in a project that interviews WWII veterans on camera. I can attest to the fact I find no rabid racism or inclination for violence among a single one I have met. None. Nada. Zip.
The Homeland Security document is an outrageous one, and one that should not only be seen as a politically motivated action, but one that demonstrates we cannot depend on the Homeland Security intelligence operation – one designated to protect us from another 9/11, is embarrassingly incompetent. We are left to presume they would only detect a domestic terrorist if he voted Republican.
While Shepard Smith and his guests are hard at work blaming all of us who doubt Obama’s place of birth, or who have not swallowed other Obama Kool Aid for the Holocaust Museum shooting…the shooting of an Army private by a committed Muslim goes forward with only slight interest or coverage.
The murderer of the Private admits his killing of one soldier and the wounding of another, was a premeditated act of war. It was terror without any cover,
Of course, Obama liberals think ALL terrorists are only violators of our criminal law. They have no idea about how a war is waged. That lack of understanding does not bode well for our chanced in the Middle East war – one liberals try to ignore. Clinton tried ignoring Islamic terror attacks on this country during his administration – even refusing more than once to take OBL into custody – an act that could have prevented 9/11. In fact, Clinton’s inaction and failure to do his duty, invited 9/11.
Now we are left slack-jawed by news the Obama Attorney General, Eric Holder, is demanding terrorists captured by our military be given Miranda rights.
The Holder idiocy raises images of our troops taking a terrorist into interrogation – trying to get information regarding terror plans and activities, must first be warned “anything you say can be used against you”…and let the terrorist find a lawyer – all this on the battlefield – during times in which information garnered by interrogation could save American lives.
The English language does not provide sufficient terms by which we could adequately evaluate this incredible demands of the Obama administration. “Incompetent”, “Outrageous”, “Utterly stupid” don’t begin to adequately describe Holder’s rule. This sort of stupidity will get a lot of Americans killed. That’s the real fact plain and simple.
Fast forward to future actions by Obama when terror suspects, caught on the battlefield, are put on trial IN THIS COUNTRY – facing a liberal judge. Suddenly the rules of evidence come into play. Anticipate liberal judges letting terrorists go free on technicalities – or because of other idiotic matters.
This is war, not a criminal investigation. We face threats from enemies who seek nuclear capabilities and who field armies in battle against our troops. Imagine the next step when the insanity of Obama is imposed on our air war. Collateral damage could result in pilots being hauled into courts to face civil lawsuits for bomb damage.
Liberals should never be allowed any involvement on waging war. They are not only incompetent to do so, they are actually likely to give aid and comfort to our enemies – people who are sworn to slaughter Americans.
I’m still reaching for a word or phrases through which the actions of Holder – and Obama – are being applied to our waging war against Radical Islamic terror.
WAIT!!!! According to Obama and other liberals, this cannot be called a war. We are to proceed to gather round, hold hands and sing gay songs. That way, there will be peace in the world and we wont study war no more.
During the election, I warned anyone who would listen about Obama’s left wing extremism being a serious threat to our nation, its people, and our future. We are still in the first six months, and Obama proves I “didn’t tell it half like it is”. He has exceeded my worst fears and expectations.
We have to hang lanterns in the church steeple and ride to alert patriots. We have got to fire on Fort Sumpter. We have got to sound the trumpet of heroes.
Pogo told us all: “we have met the enemy and he is us” – never has Pogo’s view been so very on target.
Buddy
The day’s top blogs:
1.
BREITBART: Know thy enemy: This is not your mother's Democratic Party
Andrew Breitbart
The Democratic Party's attitude to elections is admirable: Win. And recent history has shown it will do anything to do so.
When, if not now, will Republicans develop such a fighting spirit?
Democrats invest - with taxpayer money, mind you - in groups like ACORN that, among other sordid tactics, seek out Skid Row bodies and wheel them to polling places. All the Democratic National Committee needs are vans and smelling salts. Pop culture and the "education system" have done the rest, making "D" the default choice on Election Day.
Democrats brazenly take policy positions - think government services and even amnesty for illegal immigrants - not because they are the right thing to do, but because they are time-tested demographic bribes. Forget cigarettes and beer, Democrats would distribute needles, methadone, medical marijuana and biscotti in voter goodie bags if they could get away with it.
Democrats long ago jettisoned America's melting-pot ideal - E Pluribus Unum ("Out of Many, One") - because it imperils their campaign for permanent rule. Splitting the country into separate identity groups and playing them against each other works a lot better. And anyone who disagrees is a racist.
Win. Win. Win.
(NOTE here in the South, everyone was a Democrat when I was growing up. But along came Goldwater and his message of conservatism, to be followed by LBJ’s radical swing to the left, then the candidacy of George McGovern, and southern voters began swinging to the GOP. Race played no major role in the rise of the Republicans – it was a rejection of liberal, left wing government. Period. I know, because I was there.)
One of the first things President Obama attempted to do after taking office was to take control of the Census Bureau, an act that could redraw congressional districts and ensure Democratic majorities for years to come. The new president also etched out an enemies list, focusing on conservative talk-radio hosts, including Rush Limbaugh. He also appears to have singled out Fox News. Comedians and mainstream journalists who are usually contemptuous of government bullying and First Amendment threats also continue to do the president's bidding.
These overt political gestures were done amid economic chaos and mainstream media delirium to ensure permanent victory for a newly radicalized Democratic Party. Moveon.org, George Soros and the ghost of Saul Alinsky are in charge now. It's not just "tea party" protesters who think we've tilted far left. Self-avowed anarchists and open socialists proudly brandished Obama placards at well-attended May Day parades.
When elected, the Democrats dole out billion-dollar bonuses to their core supporters at taxpayers' expense. Witness the $787 billion stimulus package, an orgy of special-interest payback for labor unions, liberal activist groups and multinational corporations. One would be hard pressed to name a Democratic policy that is motivated more by principle than by winning.
Where is the media to expose this blatant corruption when the media are in the middle of the pile? NBC News, whose parent company General Electric is getting billions in stimulus cash to perpetuate Democrat-friendly "green" technologies and health care information systems, is at the forefront of a bizarre campaign to act as a check on the party that is out of power, not the party in power. NBC anchor Brian Williams bowed to the new president; MSNBC is a Fellini-esque exercise in liberal triumphalism.
With Democrats holding comfortable majorities in the House and Senate, as well as controlling the executive branch, it's only logical that the mainstream media to focus their scrutiny on Mr. Limbaugh, ex-Rep. Tom DeLay, former President George W. Bush and Sarah Palin, the governor of one of the least populous states. Right?
NBC News and MSNBC are certainly not alone among the government watchdogs that have been tamed. The New York Times expends its considerable yet waning clout to ensure that our future is in a one-party state. Vocal, liberal Hollywood celebrities - on the same page as the Huffington Post and Keith Olbermann - spread the venom by making membership in the Grand Old Party seem like an anti-social act for young voters.
Such brazenly reprehensible Democratic lawmakers as Nancy Pelosi, John P. Murtha, Barney Frank, Harry Reid and Christopher J. Dodd are not trotted before the media because of their telegenic appeal and oratorical skills, but to act as symbols of what politicians can get away with it. It's a big-league taunt - like gang members in prison sporting "tear" tattoos under their eyes to brag about their kill count. Yeah ... What are you going to do about it, Mr. Boehner and Mr. McConnell?
Yet Democrats at least wield a logical and workable strategy to defeat their enemy. And "enemy" is precisely how they view the Republican Party.
Republicans, on the other hand, act like a snobby condo board and appear to seek out potential voters for their savoriness. The party expects pre-existing respectable organizations, Protestant churches in particular, to do the heavy lifting. In this day of dwindling Republican appeal, the party's ace in the hole is heard at the end of the polling day: "Have they counted the overseas military vote yet?" It's amazing Republicans ever win.
Most disturbing, Republicans seem to think Democrats can be their friends. Not only does the Republican Party not have a Ronald Reagan, the Democratic Party has no Tip O'Neill. Washington doesn't have end-of-the-day, cross-party social sessions over single-malt scotches. There is no bipartisanship that doesn't end in Republicans acquiescing in defeat of their core principles. A coordinated Democratic campaign against mainstream middle-of-the-road Republicanism is here to stay. And our strategy, as best as I can decipher it, is to be more liked than the last go around.
In the next election cycle, things need to be drastically different. Democracy is not Augusta National Golf Club. It's a messy free-for-all, and in a two-party system, the GOP will not survive if it doesn't accept the fact that the Democrats are its enemy and that it must begin to play for keeps. That means finding another Lee Atwater - only meaner - and not apologizing when we get him.
• Andrew Breitbart is publisher of the news portals Breitbart.com and Breitbart.tv. His latest endeavor, Big Hollywood, is a group blog off of Breitbart.com on Hollywood and politics from the center/right perspective.
2.
Slowing down the Obama juggernaut
Pundette
Smarter people than I are writing about Obamacare and Justice Ginsberg’s Chrysler decision. From Stephen Spruiell:
Anything that slows down the process is bad for the administration, because the Chrysler sale doesn’t hold up well under scrutiny. Also, Ginsberg’s decision raises all kinds of questions for Sotomayor. The Court will probably be asked to hear other TARP cases, and the administration will probably keep arguing that TARP is beyond the Court’s reach. What does Sotomayor think about the legality of using TARP as an all-purpose executive-branch slush fund?
He directs us to Andrew Grossman’s analysis at the Foundry.
On “health care reform,” John J. Miller advises:
Want to defeat national health care? Make two points, over and over again: Federal spending is already out of control and the budget deficit is too big. Gallup:
PRINCETON, NJ — While 67% of Americans view President Barack Obama favorably, his overall job approval rating and his ratings on specific areas are less positive. At the low end of the spectrum, only 45% of Americans approve of Obama’s handling of federal spending, and 46% of his handling of the federal budget deficit.
(NOTE: current polling also reveals more Americans trust Republicans to handle the economy than Democrats. They also give the GOP the nod on most other issues. A sea-change in attitude and political momentum seems to be in the works. It’s good news for Republicans and for the nation as a whole.)
rom this pseudonymous mom in her robe: Two strategies that are important in family life seem also to be important right now politically.
Slow it all down. Good advice for family life in so many ways. And it applies to Obama and Congress’s continuing binge to tax, spend, borrow, and regulate like there’s no tomorrow. Since the election they’ve clearly seen the need to frenetically ram their policies through before the American public can figure out what’s hitting them. (You know things are moving way too fast when shameless legislators are passing laws no one, even the legislators themselves has time to read.) Voters can catch up to reality, at least partially, but it takes months, not days or weeks. So anything that slows the Obama juggernaut down is a good thing. As Mr. Grossman points out, Justice Ginsberg’s stay not only allows more time for thought on the Chrysler deal; it may lead to a more thoughtful confirmation process for Sonia Sotomayor, for what it’s worth. And it may be worth something.
Simplify. Goes hand in hand with slowing down the pace of life. John Miller give the political application above. Maybe we should forget the myriad excellent arguments against socialized medicine. Yeah, we’ve got a million of ‘em. And though we’ve got an example of a tried-and-failed national healthcare system just across our border, the arguments against it may be too mired in disinformation to be effective.
Though I don’t understand the disconnect between Obama’s continuing personal popularity (67% favorable, still) and his policies, it appears that Americans are starting to see that our leader is something of a drunken sailor on steroids (apologies to sailors - ykwim) when it comes to spending. So as Miller says, keep hitting with this fact: We can’t afford it. More and more of us will be mugged by this reality as the economy continues to tank. So I guess I see a filmy silver lining of hope in this lousy economic news.
This just in: a little more hope from the Blue Dogs:
The Blue Dog Coalition issued a statement that said it would only support the public health care option as a fallback measure that would be triggered sometime down the road if private insurers don’t meet a particular set of goals.
The backsliding took advocates of reform by surprise because 20 members of the coalition had previously signed a pledge expressing their support for a public option without a trigger. The statement was written and organized by the reform coalition Health Care for America Now (HCAN), which strongly opposes a trigger and sees it as an industry plot to strangle a public option in the crib.
Strangling never sounded so good. But this is all very much up in the air. The Blue Dogs are still working out their positions. Stay tuned.
3.
http://www.newsmax.com/insidecover/michele_bachmann_acorn/2009/06/10/223664.html
Bachmann: Taxpayers Footing Bill for ACORN
Jim Meyers
Rep. Michele Bachmann tells Newsmax that taxpayers are being forced to "grease the wheels" for the activist group ACORN by providing it with federal funds even though the organization has been indicted for voter registration fraud.
The Minnesota Republican has introduced the Taxpayer Protection and Anti-Fraud Act, which would bar any organization that has been indicted for violating federal or state election laws, or employs someone indicted for violating those laws, from receiving taxpayer funds.
That would cut off federal funds for The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN), which has been accused of paying its voter registration recruiters based on the number of people they sign up.
(NOTE: Make no mistake about it, despite their efforts at denial, ACORN is a partisan political effort and one designed to fill voter roles with potential Democrat voters – even some who are dead and others who “never were”. It’s been done before – but ACORN’s scandal involves the use of our tax money to pay for supporting our political enemies.)
Newsmax.TV's Ashley Martella asked Bachmann about her bill.
"The act is based on some very common sense principles that I think resonate with a lot of Americans right now," Bachmann said.
"What we're trying to do is raise the bar a little bit higher for accessing taxpayer funds than to be indicted for voter fraud. My opinion is that receiving taxpayer funds is a privilege. It's not a right. And right now taxpayer money has been going to an organization that has used it in a way that has put itself in the crosshairs with the public trust.
"They've been indicted not just in one state or two states or three states, but now they've been indicted and in some cases convicted in over a dozen states. It certainly seems at this point that the taxpayers can do a little bit better with this money."
Martella observed that the Barack Obama campaign gave ACORN $800,000 before the election, and now there are billions in the so-called stimulus bill available for ACORN and similar groups. He asked how ACORN can be stopped from getting this public money.
"It's very difficult to stop them if the taxpayer is greasing the wheels for them to be able to do their work," Bachmann responded.
"Since 1994, ACORN has been the recipient of over $53 million in direct federal money. Now that Barack Obama is president, ACORN will have access to over $8.5 billion, between the stimulus and the budget plan. That's an enormous amount of money for an organization that is under indictment in over 12 states.
"Our bill does nothing to take away the due process rights of ACORN. They still can have their day in court. They can still be adjudicated.
"All we're saying is that if an organization would choose to receive federal tax money, they need to have a higher bar set in order to be able to access that money.
"Now it's time for Congress to choose. Congress needs to decide whose side are they going to be on. Are they going to be on the side of the taxpayer or will they be on the side of ACORN? It's time for choosing."
Martella asked what kind of support Bachmann has been receiving for her bill.
"Tremendous support," she declared.
"The leadership in the House of Representatives on the Republican side has gone completely on board with my bill. Our Minority Leader John Boehner has signed on to my bill. He's urged all the members of the Republican caucus to sign on, and we're urging the Democrat members to sign on as well.
"This is a very serious issue. And now we have the specter of President Obama inviting ACORN to be one of his national partners in conducting the Census."
ACORN has reportedly been asked to help the White House find 1.4 million workers to canvass for the country’s 2010 census.
Clearly, this is another Obama scam that conspires against normal Americans nationwide. Be warned.
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