California closes down

They called it paradise
The place to be
They watched the hazy sun
Sinking in the sea.

If a government worker takes the day off and no one notices......

California drivers who needed to renew their licenses or registration found no one to help Friday at the Department of Motor Vehicles. The doors to the state health agency were locked, too.

Even Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger’s emergency services office was dark.

Hundreds of state offices closed because there was nobody to run them: More than 200,000 state employees had to take the day off Friday without pay to help ease California’s budget crisis.

Schwarzenegger ordered employees to take two unpaid days off a month, hoping to save the state $1.3 billion through June 2010, when the mass furloughs are expected to end.

More....

Getting less for more

Business is tight. Revenue is down.

Here's the way liberals operate a business. Raise your prices.

The publisher of the financially struggling Chicago Tribune Media Group says the company plans to cut jobs, freeze wages and increase prices for home subscribers to help offset a decline in revenue.

Now that's the business model that's work so successfully for every bankrupt company.

More or less

Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it.....

Apparently, the people who run Fannie Mae have serious cases of ADD since they can't even remember how they got in this place to begin with...

Fannie Mae, the mortgage-finance company under U.S. government control, will loosen rules for homeowners seeking to lower their loan payments by refinancing.

Fannie Mae will drop some credit-score requirements, reduce income-documentation standards and waive the need for appraisals in some cases, according to a notice yesterday to lenders posted on the Washington-based company’s Web site. The changes apply to loans that the company owns or guarantees.

The company, which accounts for more than 40 percent of the $12 trillion in U.S. residential mortgage debt, is seeking to break a “logjam” in refinancing and allow more homeowners to take advantage of near-record low interest rates, according toBrian Faith, a Fannie Mae spokesman. The increased flexibility for consumers isn’t large enough to significantly harm mortgage- bond investors and mortgage insurers, analysts said.

Remind me again of how we got to this place?

HT For what its worth.

Good news from Oregon

My buddy Bartman will appreciate this news....

Cars are such an easy target for politicians looking to bolster their green image. The latest is Oregon Governor Theodore Kulongoski, who has had the Speaker of the House introduce a bill that could make many aftermarket parts unavailable.

Tires are the main aim of the bill, which seeks to prohibit parts availability if there are choices that decrease greenhouse gas emissions. It amounts to a back-door fuel economy standard, which is the jurisdiction of the federal government unless you're California –and even they need a waiver. The prospect of fitting Pilot Sports to your Geo Metro will be out the window if H.B. 2186 finds traction, and it could stick you with zero alternatives based on some myopic metric like rolling resistance. Putting our legislators in charge of what equipment should be fitted to our cars doesn't strike us as the brightest idea. Hit the linked article for contact information, so you know who to call and excoriate. Thanks, Charlie!

More at autoblog

Obama Adm. Cancels Oil And Gas Leases In Utah

This always improves our ability to be energy independent from foreign sources.

When they eat their own

This is classic.......

When Beyonce serenaded Barack and Michelle Obama for their first dance, we all assumed it was kosher for her to sing an Etta James song. Not so! Much to our surprise, Etta is pissed off in a major way at Beyonce for singing At Last, which is her biggest claim to fame.

At a concert of hers in Seattle a few nights ago, Etta unleashed her hidden anger to the crowd, saying:

"You know, YOUR President, the one with the big ears-he ain’t MY President–had that woman singing for him at his Inauguration. She’s going to get her ass whooped.”

“How dare Beyonce sing MY song that I been singing forever. Now I’m going to sing it for y’all….”

more...

Stimulis: Because all economies have performance issues

The Snuggie Stimulus!

Mary Katherine Hamm

Robert Gibbs Avoids Jake Tapper's Questions On Transparency

Not necessary

Another economic lesson for you "progressive" ding dongs and derelicts.....

The Obamanunists have increased standards for energy efficiency on appliances, air conditioners, furnaces and light bulbs.

Class, what will that do to the price of those products? I'll give you a hint, they won't go down.

Now that the prices of those products have gone up, do you think that will make it more or less likely that someone will replace an older appliance with a newer and more expensive one?

The fact is people are replacing older, less efficient, appliances because it's in their best interest; they cost less to operate. Making those appliances more expensive makes it harder for poor & middle class people to replace older appliances. Thus, causing more energy waste.

Like I've always said, I'm not conservative because of me; I can afford to be liberal. It's the poor people in this country I have compassion for and this bill hurts them more than it helps them.

Article here

At least, the poor in this country have another five months to get their TV conversion box.

The AP at the Obama trough

The AP is looking to cash in on Obamanation (thanks to reader Mark)....

On buttons, posters and Web sites, the image was everywhere during last year's presidential campaign: A pensive Barack Obama looking upward, as if to the future, splashed in a Warholesque red, white and blue and underlined with the caption HOPE.

Designed by Shepard Fairey, a Los-Angeles based street artist, the image has led to sales of hundreds of thousands of posters and stickers, has become so much in demand that copies signed by Fairey have been purchased for thousands of dollars on eBay.

The image, Fairey has acknowledged, is based on an Associated Press photograph, taken in April 2006 by Manny Garcia on assignment for the AP at the National Press Club in Washington.

The AP says it owns the copyright, and wants credit and compensation. Fairey disagrees.

SUUUUUEEEEEEEEEEEEEEY..

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Obama finally declares a disaster

In a move that makes the Katrina response look like a formula one race, Obama finally declared parts of Kentucky a major disaster; only nine days after the fact.

President Barack Obama on Thursday issued a major disaster declaration for Kentucky in the wake of a deadly ice storm, ordering federal aid to supplement local recovery efforts.

Gov. Steve Beshear sought the major disaster status earlier this week. The storm has been blamed for 27 Kentucky deaths.

Beshear said such a declaration would open the state to immediate federal financial assistance in the wake of the devastating ice storm, which cut power to more than three-fourths of a million homes and businesses, a state record.

The declaration allows state and local governments to be reimbursed for up to 75 percent of storm-related costs from the federal government. Federal Emergency Management Agency administrator Nancy Ward said her agency is reviewing whether the severity of the storm and the cost of repairing damages warrant 100 percent reimbursement.

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Stewart

The Daily Show With Jon StewartM - Th 11p / 10c

Obama: Day 15

Daily Show Full Episodes
Funny Political Videos

Important Things With Demetri Martin
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The Gore Effect - Buffalo

Buffalo State College hosts the national teach-in on Global Warming Situations today — a day the local temperature bottomed out at minus 6 degrees.

No evidence of global warming here, at least not this morning, when unofficial reports to the National Weather Service listed temperatures as low as 9 degrees below zero elsewhere in Erie County.

"We didn't have temperatures forecast to be quite that cold," weather service meteorologist David Zaff said this morning. "When you have snowpack on the ground and clear skies, temperatures can plummet. It's called radiational cooling."

That cooling phenomenon, under mockingly clear skies, posed a hardship for some morning commuters and some finger-numbing discomfort for others.

"Compared to a normal winter day, our call volume is up about 25 percent, and it's directly related to the cold," said Diana Dibble, public affairs manager for AAA of Western and Central New York.

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I agree

Robert F. Kennedy Jr. on Wednesday said he thinks hog farmers are a greater threat to Americans than Osama bin Laden.

I agree. Look at those hog farmers Lollapelosi and Harry "The Weasel" Reid. See previous post.

All I know is that it was -8 degrees this morning on my drive into the office. Without global warming, it would have been -10.

Give me my damn global warming.

more....

Soooooooeeeeey

Throw some slop in the trough and just watch all the hogs come a runnin'.....

Despite pledges by congressional leaders to keep special projects out of the legislation, groups ranging from a home builders' coalition to an Indian tribe in Oklahoma have hired lobbyists recently to help them secure a piece of the $900 billion economic stimulus package moving through Congress.

More than two dozen organizations have filed lobbying registration forms since Election Day that list the stimulus package — known as the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act — as a focus of their lobbying efforts, according to a USA TODAY review of records compiled by the non-partisan CQ MoneyLine.

MODERATES: Obama looks for allies in Senate

SENATE APPROVED: Homebuyers would get $15,000 tax break

UNDER CONSIDERATION: $4B from stimulus to law enforcement

"It's a lobbyist full-employment act," Steve Ellis, vice president of the budget watchdog group Taxpayers for Common Sense, said of the package. "This is a big train, and everything is hopping on board."

Officials in Forsyth County, N.C., for instance, recently signed a $60,000 lobbying contract with the Ferguson Group as they seek $20 million in federal money for highway improvements, $1 million for a gun range and $3 million for airport taxiway extension, said County Manager Dudley Watts. The county is looking for opportunities in the stimulus package and other spending bills Congress will consider later in the year, he said.

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Democrat = corruption

Today's contestant on America's most corrupt politician, folks, let's give a big round of applause to Leon Panetta.

It's been a bumpy few days on the new Obama administration bus, what with all the bodies throwing themselves under the shiny chassis -- Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer and the ones yet to come from the transition team that missed the bones in Bill Richardson's closet and Daschle's and Geithner's and Killefer's tax returns.

In public, stand-up political bosses like Barack Obama are, well, stand-up, obediently shouldering the full blame like medicine from Mom. Americans like that and turn very forgiving when they hear it. So, Obama did that so sincerely and stoically on every TV network last night.

The buck stops here and all that, which drew hearty praise today from Robert Gibbs, Obama's own press secretary. But, in private, those bosses really, really don't like to have to do that. And someone will pay. If he/she hasn't already.

Meanwhile, word outta Washington late today that the congressional confirming committees, also embarrassed, are taking a closer look at the documents of some preexisting Obama nominees such as, oh, say, former California representative, Bill Clinton chief of staff and proposed CIA chief Leon Panetta. The Senate Intelligence Committee (no, that's not being sarcastic) takes up Panetta on Thursday morning.

Apparently, his reports to ethics officials indicate the onetime congressman who hung around Washington anyway is now worth nearly $4 million, which makes hanging around Washington seem a worthy pastime for washed-up pols. Last year Panetta took in about $1.2 million in investments, consulting and speaking fees, plus other income from corporate boards like BP and banks that have now failed or taken bailout money like Wachovia. Let's all do that.

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Ramirez

Mike Ramirez

Speaker of the House

HT Weekly Standard

Making Ohio livable - Democrat style

People are fleeing the state like the Exodus but that isn't keeping Governor Ted from making Ohio more livable... by increasing taxes.

Ohioans will pay more to drive, fly a plane, dump trash, have pools inspected and enjoy state parks under Gov. Ted Strickland’s proposed budget released today.

Licenses to sell cigarettes or operate hospices and campgrounds also would cost more under Strickland’s $54.7 billion, two-year budget, which increases 120 state fees to raise $236 million.

The governor also plans to charge tolls on newly constructed highways, and make driving without a seat belt a primary traffic offense, meaning more fines. Ohio police now can ticket seat-belt violations only if drivers are first pulled over for another traffic violation.

Tickets for not using a child booster seat also would double, to $50 or $100, with the higher fine for a repeat offense. Court fees that are tacked onto those fines also would increase. And more than $890 million can be raised by increasing license fees on hospital and long-term care facilities, the governor said.

I guess Governor Ted must have read Ahnauld's book How to Save Your State From Bankruptcy; A Governor's Guide to chasing residents away.

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News from Iraq

Thanks to Mark for the heads up....

Iraqis held their most peaceful election since the fall of Saddam Hussein on Saturday, voting for provincial councils without a single major attack in a poll that demonstrated the country's dramatic security gains.

U.S. President Barack Obama hailed the poll as an important step toward Iraqis taking responsibility for their future. "I congratulate the people of Iraq on holding significant provincial elections today," he said in a statement.

"The purple fingers have returned to build Iraq," Prime Minister Nuri al-Maliki said after the polls closed, referring to the indelible ink stains on index fingers that show voters have cast their ballots.

How is it that Iraq can run a better election than we can?

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What a guy

Dodd's mortgage deal....

Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd has finally, sort of, kind of, ended 193 days of stonewalling about his sweetheart loans from former Countrywide CEO Angelo Mozilo. At least he did if you were a fast reader and were one of the few reporters he invited to his Hartford office yesterday to review -- but not copy or take -- more than 100 pages of documents related to his 2003 mortgage financings through Countrywide's "Friends of Angelo" program.

These are the files that Mr. Dodd pledged to make public after the news broke last summer that the Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee had received preferential treatment from Countrywide. At first, Mr. Dodd denied everything. Later, he conceded that he'd been given special treatment but thought it was "more of a courtesy."

Heck, we'd all love the kind of courtesy that would have saved Mr. Dodd $75,000 over the life of the two loans he refinanced to the tune of $800,000, according to an analysis by Portfolio magazine. The savings came from rock-bottom interest rates and a free "float-down" -- the right to borrow at a lower rate if interest rates fall before you've closed on the loan.

Anyone checked this dude's tax returns?

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Tom Daschle Ad

Is this the car his driver is toting him around in?

When will the Branch Gorevidians beat him to death for this energy hog?

Complete your own 1040DEM form

Read through the form it's hilarious.

Quote of the Day

From Tax Daschle....

From Sean Hannity's book, page 209... (HT NRO)

"We have the lowest tax rate of any industrialized country in the world," Daschle replied. "That tax rate has, in large measure, been the subject of a great deal of debate about fairness for a long period of time. We have a great disparity between the richest and poorest in this country. Our view is that we've got to make the tax system more fair. But certainly I don't think that many people are overtaxed."

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Another tax cheat Obamamunist

This is starting to get down right ridiculous........

Nancy Killefer, the management consultant and former Treasury official who had been picked by President Obama to serve as the country's chief performance officer, has withdrawn from consideration for the post, White House officials confirmed this morning.

In a two-paragraph letter, Killefer indicated that controversy over failure to pay taxes by two other high-profile nominees of Obama's had persuaded her to decline the new president's request to join his administration. Killefer had a tax lien placed on her house by the D.C. government in 2005 because she had not paid unemployment taxes for her household help. She resolved the problem five months after the lien was filed, but the Associated Press wrote about it shortly after Killefer was nominated in early January.

At what point do libs start to get that this Obama administration is bad news?

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Get ready for some pain... Obama style

Ed Lasky with a great piece on the impact of the Obamamunists' activity in just two weeks. The results aren't good.....

The reviews are in and Barack Obama seems to have laid a big fat egg -- on Wall Street anyway. In all fairness, the President cannot be held responsible for all the turmoil afflicting the stock market and the American economy. The crisis did precede him. But we were promised that an Obama presidency would restore our economy; the campaign was all about hope and change. Change is happening but not the hope. How do we know this?

Wall Street and businesses look ahead-stock prices reflect the future value of companies; businesses hire to prepare for the future. Conversely, when stock prices collapse (the Dow is down nearly 9% since the New Year began, the S&P 500 about 8.6%) and companies lay off workers (almost 600,000 and counting since Barack Obama won in November), hope is just not happening. It is just a word, after all.

Why?

I won't linger over the policies being promoted that send a clear message: free enterprise is on the endangered list. But a brief recap might help to explain why I have this prognosis.

The "stimulus" bill will not stimulate the economy. Very few of the dollars being spent (borrowed -- to be paid back by us and our descendants ‘til kingdom come) will go towards infrastructure spending or the types of targeted measures that help business grow and hire workers. Instead, Nancy Pelosi and company have larded up the bill to please a swath of Democratic special interest groups, including members of a politically powerful union with close ties to Barack Obama and the Democratic Party.

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Thought of the day

I thought paying taxes was patriotic.

What does that make Daschle, Geitner and Rangel?

Handling a terrorist correctly

I bet this guy wished he was in Guantanamo.

White flags in Paris

GERMAN soldiers are to be stationed in France for the first time since the Second World War, in a sign of ever closer military ties between the two historic foes.

A battalion of some 450-800 troops will probably be based near the north-eastern city of Strasbourg, but the two countries are still negotiating over the precise location, a diplomatic source said.

I think Hitler called his invasion "a sign of closer military ties".

No word yet on when the French will surrender.

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Why I hate the senate

Because it's the world's largest circle jerk and taxpayer's get to pick up the tab.

Case in point, The "Honorable" Tom Daschle......

Tom Daschle failed to pay taxes on a quarter-million dollars of income related to the chauffeured Cadillac that ferried him about town for three years. But don't call the guy a limousine liberal.

When he visited Capitol Hill on Monday to explain his tax problems to senators, Daschle - President Obama's choice to run the Department of Health and Human Services - he came in one D.C. cab and left in another.

"My failure to recognize that the use of a car was income and not a gift from a good friend was a mistake," the former Senate majority leader explained as his onetime colleagues stood behind him in a display of support. "It was completely inadvertent. But that's no excuse, and I deeply apologize to President Obama, to my colleagues and to the American people."

It's unclear whether the American people will accept the apology; they tend to look unfavorably on people who amass more than $350,000 in unreported income and improper deductions. They also might be skeptical of somebody who used his connections and influence to pile up more than $5.2 million since he left the Senate, much of it from a major Democratic donor and $220,000 of it from health care interests that Daschle, if confirmed by senators, will begin to regulate.

But Obama, and Democratic senators, were eager to accept their friend's apology. The president, a former senator himself, pronounced himself "absolutely" behind Daschle, and members of the Senate Finance Committee, after sitting with Daschle for just 15 minutes, lined up at the microphones to absolve him.

"I don't know of a person more honorable," said Kent Conrad, D-N.D.

"It's an innocent mistake," added John Kerry, D-Mass.

"I will vote for Sen. Daschle," the committee chairman, Max Baucus, D-Mont., read from a prepared statement.

"Don't know a person more honorable"? Then you don't get out enough Kent. Bernard Madoff is more "honorable" than any of these d-bags.

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That about does it

We don't need to bother running this stimulus plan through the senate now because Paris has vetoed the legislation.

Prime Minister François Fillon on Monday rejected demands that the French government seek to stimulate consumer spending, rather than follow his plan to stimulate corporate and infrastructure investment, to lift France out of its economic slump.

"It would be irresponsible to chose another policy, which would increase our country's indebtedness without having more infrastructure and increased competitiveness in the end," Fillon said in a speech in Lyon.

More than 1.1 million people took to the streets across France last Thursday, according to the Interior Ministry, with unions putting the number of protesters at 2.5 million, to call on President Nicolas Sarkozy to stop cutting government jobs, increase the minimum wage and spend more on households as the economy enters its first recession since 1993.

Opponents of the government have been calling for an "Obama-style" stimulus plan, one that puts money directly into the pockets of working people.

First, I don't know what these guys have been reading but almost nothing in the "stimulus" plan is going to working people. Nearly all of it is going to fund every liberal cause celeb re since the 1960's.

Second, shouldn't the Obamamunists check in with Sarkozy before finalizing any stimulus plan? After all, Bush was vilified for acting alone with no regard for world opinion.

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Tax cheaters cheat us all

"Tax cheaters cheat us all!"

Those are the words. click here to hear the audio

Caring for the poor

The conventional wisdom for generations is that democrats care for the poor.

Nothing could be further from the truth. Especially when you consider this....

Congress is moving so fast and furious that it's impossible to keep up. But we didn't want to miss telling you about the tax increase on the poor and middle class that Congress is about to pass without a whit of media attention.

We mean the tax increase on smokers that is part of the new children's health-care subsidy bill. To finance this $73 billion entitlement expansion over 10 years, the bill imposes an additional federal tax of 61 cents per cigarette pack, from 39 cents today. According to the Bureau of Economic Analysis, 96% of America's 25 million smokers make less than $150,000 a year. The Tax Foundation estimates that 99% of the smokers who will pay the new tax make less than $250,000, which is the income below which President Obama promised would see no tax increase.

"No other federal tax hurts the poor more than the cigarette tax," says the Tax Foundation. These are the same folks the Obama Administration wants to help by raising the amount of the earned-income tax credit, but wait. A 61-cent cigarette tax hike is the equivalent of a 25% cut in that tax credit for some low-income families. So the politicians give these families money with one hand and take it back with the other.

As I've always said, I can afford to be liberal; I'm a conservative because I have compassion for the least of us.

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Global Warming Challenge update

The average high temperature for this past month of January was 34.1 degrees. Historically, that number is 38.0.

The average low temperature for this past month of January was 18.5 degrees v the historical average of low of 21.3.

Basically, for the month of January, our average temperature was about 3 degrees below normal.

That makes the score to the challenge Warming - 0; Cooling - 2.

For you Branch Gorevidians out there, explain to me how it is that if we have Global Warming, it somehow is avoiding the greater Cincinnati area.

I guess since most of them went to public schools, they're not aware that Cincinnati is, in fact, part of the globe.

But that's OK, because it continues the liberal streak of being wrong 100 percent of the time.

Closing the tax gap

From Scrappleface.....

In office less than two weeks, President Barack Obama has already increased tax receipts at the U.S. Treasury with an innovative plan to get tax-dodgers to pay up, in full, immediately.

“The president’s plan is simple but ingenious,” said White House spokesman Robert Gibbs, “He targets wealthy individuals who filed inaccurate tax forms, cheating the government out of tens of thousands of dollars. Then he just nominates them for cabinet positions. They suddenly see the error of their ways, and they cut checks for the full amount owed, plus interest.”

In the month of January alone, Mr. Obama has forced Timothy Geithner, former president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, to cough up $43,000 he owed the IRS, and former Sen. Tom Daschle to pay off his $128,000 tax obligation. Mr. Geithner will put his tax-paying experience to good use, overseeing the IRS as Secretary of the Treasury. Mr. Daschle hopes his recently-good behavior will garner Senate confirmation as the next Secretary of the Health and Human Services.

“With the IRS underfunded as it is,” said Mr. Gibbs, “this collection method is much more efficient than dispatching field agents. Arresting these men, or compelling them to pay penalties would take years, and make them feel bad about themselves. The president’s method not only gets more money to the government to help our economy, but provides a self-esteem boost by giving these wealthy men important-sounding titles.”

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Who did he vote for? #102

Meet Darren Schwindaman. Why is little Darren in the news?

Darren is a self employed young professional who can't seem to find money to pay for his health insurance but seems to have plenty of money to travel to Europe and go to the Vatican.

So who does a young professional who can't afford insurance but can afford Europe vote for this past November? Obama or McCain?

I've got news for little Darren. See Gordon doesn't get to enjoy Europe because he does crazy shit...... like pay for his own health insurance.

RT has more on his site.

Is there a non corrupt democrat around?

Even more corruption in the democratic party.

This time is in that land of "progress" known as Detroit.

Former Detroit Mayor Kwame Kilpatrick, his father, Bernard Kilpatrick, and City Council President Monica Conyers are the major figures cited in a sludge-hauling executive's account of greed and bribery in the Synagro scandal, sources confirmed Tuesday to the Free Press. The three have not been charged with wrongdoing in the case.

Their names -- and others -- emerged with additional details about the government's investigation into city corruption.

The Free Press has learned that James Rosendall, the former Synagro Technologies vice president who pleaded guilty to bribery Monday, has been questioned about his contacts with other executives at Houston-based Synagro.

FBI agents recorded one Synagro official on a phone call with Rosendall discussing Rosendall's efforts to win the $1.2-billion contract in Detroit, one source said, adding that executive has since been suspended by Synagro.

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Yet another democrat lining his pockets

U.S. Sen. Christopher J. Dodd says he's got nothing to hide. Yet for months he's issued confusing and conflicting statements on whether he'll publicly release documents relating to two loans he and his wife received from failed mortgage giant Countrywide Financial Corp.

He still hasn't released them. On Jan. 23, Mr. Dodd was asked if he intends to await the conclusion of a Senate ethics inquiry before making the documents public. "Not necessarily," he told a reporter for The Courant. "At some point soon we'll do it."

Mr. Dodd should have released the documents months ago. Countrywide was a major player in the subprime mortgage debacle. Five years ago, it issued the loans to Mr. Dodd, then a member of the Senate banking committee, as part of the company's VIP program, trimming the upfront costs for refinancing two of the senator's homes and allowing the rates to "float down" as interest rates dropped.

Countrywide collapsed last year and was acquired by Bank of America. Its failure sent shock waves through the economy and raised the question of why Congress didn't act sooner to curb subprime lending by Countrywide and others.

I've been surfing many of the "progressive" blogs and I have yet to find one of them condemn any of this democratic corruption. If there is one out there please send me the link.

Quote of the Day

From Instapundit

“I think it is incumbent upon Obama to nominate Wesley Snipes for something immediately.”


.

Super Dud pregame

I've watched a total of five minutes of NBC's Super Bowl pregame and I'm already nauseated.

1) Matt Millen?
2) 67 analysts to cover everything. Most of them former coaches speaking in coach speak.
3) Keith Olberman? Way to alienate 40% of your audience. By the way Keith, I bet Rush Limbaugh could wear that suit you have on and not have as many button puckers as you have on it. Nutrisystem buddy.

Some stimulus

From Suitably Flip

The Daschle's

From uber lib Glenn Greenwald

When Barack Obama announced in early December that he had selected Tom Daschle to be his Secretary of Health and Human Services as well as his "health care policy czar," Rolling Stone's Matt Taibbi -- who had spent several months studying the inner workings of the 2006 Congress in order to profile its limitless corruption -- wrote the following reaction on his blog:

I know several reporters who are either officially or unofficially on "Whore Factor" duty, watching the rapidly kaleidoscoping transition picture and keeping track of the number of known whores and ghouls who for some reason have been invited to befoul the atmosphere of the next administration.

Obviously there has been some dire news on that front already. When Obama picked Tom Daschle to be the HHS Secretary, I nearly shit my pants. In Washington there are whores and there are whores, and then there is Tom Daschle. Tom Daschle would suck off a corpse for a cheeseburger. True, he is probably only the second-biggest whore for the health care industry in American politics — the biggest being doctor/cat-torturer Bill Frist, whose visit to South Dakota on behalf of John Thune in 2004 was one of the factors in ending Daschle's tenure in the Senate.

But in picking Daschle — who as an adviser to the K Street law firm Alston and Bird has spent the last four years burning up the sheets with the nation's fattest insurance and pharmaceutical interests — Obama is essentially announcing that he has no intention of seriously reforming the health care industry. . . .

Regarding Daschle, remember, we're talking about a guy who not only was a consultant for one of the top health-care law firms in the country, but a board member of the Mayo Clinic (a major recipient of NIH grants) and the husband of one of America's biggest defense lobbyists — wife Linda Hall lobbies for Lockheed-Martin and Boeing. Does anyone really think that this person is going to come up with a health care proposal that in any way cuts into the profits of the major health care companies?

The Daschle's sound like high quality individuals. The kind of people who cheat on their taxes and are democrats.

More.....

Obama hates white people

Where's FEMA when people are freezing to death in Kentucky?

With nearly 1.5 million people in the mid-west without power during a cold snap, what other possible reason is there that this new "competent" administration and FEMA would be failing so spectacularly in helping in this natural disaster?

It's got to be that Obama hates white people and wants them to die!

Of course, I am just aping what lefty blogs were saying about Bush less than 24 hours after Katrina's hurricane winds stopped blowing. But AP is reporting that Midwest disaster relief people are none too pleased with our new president's FEMA.

In Kentucky's Grayson County, there are 25 National Guardsmen there to help - but no chain saws to cut away fallen limbs and trees. EM Director Randell Smith is quoted as saying, "We've got people out in some areas we haven't even visited yet," Smith said. "We don't even know that they're alive."

Smith is also quoted as saying that FEMA is a "no show."

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