Christine Kelly, newly chosen as France's Minister for Overseas Territories, was photographed today in a bikini. The 39-year-old looks like a model out of a lads' mag.
In a new poll of the world's prettiest politicos, British female parliamentarians scored nul points.
Topping this list of beauties is Luciana Leon, a 30-year-old Peruvian whose flowing blonde hair and Colgate smile would raise the temperature in a debate. She's followed by another gal from Peru, more matronly certainly, but there's little doubt that Mercedes Araoz, 47, would catch many a watery Westminster eye.
Here are ladies from Ukraine, Spain, Italy and Japan. Even Estonia has its youthful representative in the sultry Anna-Maria Galojan. click on the link (You know you want to)
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is standing by his Defence Minister, but says he is disappointed Joel Fitzgibbon failed to declare gifts he received from a Chinese-born businesswoman.
Name that Party, Down Under edition...
Mr Fitzgibbon last night admitted he failed to declare that Helen Liu paid for him to visit China in 2002 and 2005, and gave him a suit last year, which he later returned. He previously said that he had only ever received small Christmas and birthday gifts from Ms Liu, who Mr Fitzgibbon says is a close family friend.
Mr Rudd told reporters in Washington that it is appropriate that Acting Prime MInister Julia Gillard has demanded an apology from Mr Fitzgibbon and that he has given it. "It is right that he apologise," Mr Rudd said. "I am disappointed that he did not make these declarations back then. I expect better of Mr Fitzgibbon in the future."
Last night Mr Fitzgibbon said he had "taken immediate steps to declare this sponsored travel to the clerk of registrar of members' interests". These trips were paid for by Ms Helen Liu either personally or through her associated commercial interests. I failed to disclose those trips. This was a mistake and for that I apologise."
Opposition Leader Malcolm Turnbull told ABC Radio's AM program that Mr Rudd must sack the Defence Minister. "The real question now is for Mr Rudd. Is he going to take his responsibilities as Prime Minister seriously?" he said. "Is he going to leave in place a Defence Minister that has lost the confidence of the defence forces, the Defence Department and the public?"
The Office of Thrift Supervision (OTS) announced the sudden replacement of Scott Polakoff as acting director yesterday evening. OTS is a unit of the Treasury Department that regulates banks focused on mortgage lending. The Treasury's inspector general is investigating a number of instances in which OTS employees allowed banks to exaggerate their financial health in required filings by including money they did not receive until after the reporting period. One senior OTS official has already been relieved of his duties & 'agreed' to resign. The OTS has acknowledged 4 other episodes. Sec. Geithner has appointed another acting director.
At first glance, SmartSpark Energy Systems looks like a lot of technology startups. It raised $6 million in venture capital, employs 24 people and doesn't make any money. What sets the company apart: It has two teams of lobbyists.
The first jobs of the federal clean-energy stimulus plan are here -- and they're for lobbyists. SmartSpark is part of a stampede of technology companies hiring insiders in Washington and state capitals to gain influence. They're vying for a piece of last month's $787 billion stimulus package.
"There is so much at stake here that there's an enormous need for entrepreneurs to get close with policy makers," said Jason Matlof, a partner at Battery Ventures in Menlo Park, California. "There are billions just for R&D. It's a lot of money."
The spending is far more than venture capitalists can give renewable-energy companies, especially during a recession, Matlof said. Battery told its eight clean-technology companies last month to put a specific executive in charge of getting public money, and to consider hiring lobbyists.
The stimulus bill, signed by President Barack Obama last month, includes $77.6 billion for clean-energy projects, according to the research firm IDC.
And no idea of how to spend it properly ...
Competition for government dollars will be intense, said Jon Sakoda, a partner at New Enterprise Associates in Chevy Chase, Maryland. NEA has 25 clean-energy startups in its portfolio, he said. "At least half have either hired lobbyists or will in the next three to six months," Sakoda said.
Cleantech Group, a San Francisco consulting and executive- search firm, says venture capitalists are bombarding it with requests to form a trade association. They want a permanent presence in Washington to lobby for the industry.
"It's the topic du jour," said Dallas Kachan, a managing director at Cleantech Group. "We've literally spent the last few weeks trying to figure out how we can play a role."
Another organization, called Cleantech and Green Business for Obama, is within weeks of announcing a plan to form a permanent group, co-chairman Josh Becker said. The organization raised $1.6 million for the president's campaign last year.
The new industry wants to make progress in Washington before congressional elections next year and a presidential race in 2012, Matlof said. If the Republicans retake power, it may be reminiscent of 1981, when President Ronald Reagan abandoned Jimmy Carter's pro-conservation policies, he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Barack Obama meets with a flock of nervous bankers at the White House tomorrow to reassure them he understands their interests. Good luck. There has always been tension between the Democratic Party and the private sector. That tension is over. With its vote in the House of Representatives to punish corporate bonus payments, the national Democratic Party has disconnected itself entirely from the private sector.
The public bear-baiting of AIG's Ed Liddy, and then passage of the bonus bill, gave the nation a good look at the modern Democratic Party freed of constraints.
The current version of the party has largely broken free of any understanding whatsoever of the private sector -- how it works or what it needs to function.
True socialists at least think about markets so they can criticize them. The Democratic Party's leadership doesn't stir to even that level of engagement. In the House, Senate and some corners of the Obama White House, the party is acting as if the marketplace was the world of an alien tribe, which it has to control through intimidation or demands for protective tribute (read: campaign contributions).
This is not true of the entire 90% of self-identified Democrats who voted for Barack Obama. But Democrats who work in real jobs rather than work for the mothership in Washington must recognize that the party's obsessions are becoming ever less hospitable to a functioning economy, or Mr. Geithner's labors to that goal.
This decoupling has occurred mainly in the Northeast (New England lost its last House Republican in 2008) and in California. Invulnerable seats have allowed politicians from these regions to control key committee chairs affecting the economy: Barney Frank (finance), Henry Waxman (regulation) Pete Stark (the health subcommittee of Ways and Means), Chris Dodd (Senate banking), Ted Kennedy (health), Barbara Boxer (environment).
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
The only principle liberals socialists believe in is power. They still haven't learned the basics that have been around for 2,500 years. Being modern means never having to pay attention to the real history of human behavior.
#2
It cracked me up the other day when an Obamaniac, after threatening the hell out of the oil industry, when before a meeting of industry leaders to point out that current oil and natural gas surveys are 40 years out of date, so would they please spend a fortune to update them, so the government would be able to more effectively oppress the oil and natural gas industry?
It must have been truly amazing to see a room full of Texans saying absolutely nothing, not moving, not blinking, not breathing. It would have been a lot more amazing to hear what they had to say after he left.
#3
'moose,
I think every mile of seismic data shot by or for the oil companies in the Federal offshore has to be given to the MMS essentially at the same time. Their complaint must be that they lack the expertise or manpower to interpret it, not that they don't have the data.
#4
Not to mention that there's large amounts of the continental shelf that the Feds have basically refused to survey in detail themselves (it's not open to lease or anything in the near future, afaik).
#2
Who in the Navy/Exec branch/Congress pushed this through? Mertha may have been behind it, thinking he might need it to win next election. If that were true, wouldn't it be dandy to let his voters know?
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/27/2009 13:24 Comments ||
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In one of his last moves before leaving office March 13, then-Navy Secretary Donald Winter quietly awarded 19-term Democratic congressman John Murtha (Pa.) with the service's highest civilian honor.
#6
I'd like to offer that fat f*cker a long walk off a short pier. Indeed an X-Marine. I'd like to kick his ass six ways from Sunday, steaming pompous blow hard pile of sh*t that he is. Jack "Turncoat" Murtha.
The Massachusetts debacle, coming soon to your neighborhood
Praise Mitt Romney. Three years ago, the former Massachusetts Governor had the inadvertent good sense to create the "universal" health-care program that the White House and Congress now want to inflict on the entire country. It is proving to be instructive, as Mr. Romney's foresight previews what President Obama, Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy and Pete Stark are cooking up for everyone else.
In Massachusetts's latest crisis, Governor Deval Patrick and his Democratic colleagues are starting to move down the path that government health plans always follow when spending collides with reality -- i.e., price controls. As costs continue to rise, the inevitable results are coverage restrictions and waiting periods. It was only a matter of time.
Continued on Page 49
#1
See similar article but from Bloomberg, the Federal Governments own implementation of National Health Care at
http://tinyurl.com/csf7wg.
House Health Plan to Include Government-Run Option (Update2)
They are ignoring the lessons learned in Massachusetts and the catastrophic effect this will have on the State's budget in the end. The same will eventually happen on the Federal side in time.
#2
The only difference between Deval and his buddy in Washington is that Barry's taller.
But Barry might also note that Deval's current approval ratings are in a flaming nose dive to hell...
Before its portfolio of bad loans helped trigger the current housing crisis, mortgage giant Freddie Mac was the focus of a major accounting scandal that led to a management shake-up, huge fines and scalding condemnation of passive directors by a top federal regulator.
One of those allegedly asleep-at-the-switch board members was Chicago's Rahm Emanuel--now chief of staff to President Barack Obama--who made at least $320,000 for a 14-month stint at Freddie Mac that required little effort.
As gatekeeper to Obama, Emanuel now plays a critical role in addressing the nation's mortgage woes and fulfilling the administration's pledge to impose responsibility on the financial world.
Continued on Page 49
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Well, if you may rip off the government, it makes you a GOOD DEMOCRAT.
Afterall, these are not real people that pay taxes, just peons.
FU Freddie mac and fannie mae, FU government execs - DODD, FRANKS, Rham (you scumbag) , and yes you, MR President. You are a scum sucking suck bag from the depths of HELL.
#2
You all created it and made us pay for it, and now you persecute those that are supposed to smoke the books for your interest. You are no longer running a government in Gods Eyes.
Rep. Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, has been named "Porker of the Month" by Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) because of his criticism of bonuses for AIG employees while Frank himself has supported bailouts for failing banks and lenders.
The CAGW, a non-partisan government watchdog group, noted that Frank has said that AIG's bonuses only "rewarded failure." Yet Frank voted for the Troubled Assets Relief Program, a financial bailout program with no enforceable strings attached, said the CAGW, and he defended Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac while those lending institutions were in financial trouble.
The CAGW noted Frank's defense of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac over the years, "even when it became clear that executives at the two giant government-sponsored enterprises (GSEs) had manipulated earnings statements and gifted themselves with huge bonuses based on the bogus numbers, misled regulators, and steered the companies into such shoddy condition that they posed a systemic risk to the entire financial system," said the CAGW statement.
In September 2003, Frank told The New York Times that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac "are not facing any kind of financial crisis." Both Fannie and Freddie are now almost entirely owned by the government, and while Freddie Mac got $13.8 billion in bailout money last year, Fannie Mae is estimated to get $15.2 billion in 2009, according to the CAGW.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
More than that, he should be in federal "pound me in the a**" prison right now.
#6
WAFF > [Poster] OKI'S WARNING. Poster whom claims to had predicted recent US Markets/Econ Troubles says US MAY FREEZE THE US DOLLAR; + [IIUC} WORK OR COLLUDE WID NOKOR IN LT TO PRODUCE US CURRENCIES???
Eight months after being swept up in the Bonusgate scandal, a former top Democrat in the Pennsylvania House is facing a new set of corruption charges - this time for allegedly using money from a Western Pennsylvania nonprofit he controlled for political purposes.
While announcing the latest charges against Mike Veon yesterday, Attorney General Tom Corbett disclosed that he would examine whether other legislators had misused nonprofits. But he refused to say how many might be involved. At a news conference in Pittsburgh, he did say the Veon case was unmistakably similar to the one just wrapped up in a Philadelphia federal courtroom against former State Sen. Vincent J. Fumo.
"This is clearly now the second time that a government has charged that money has been misappropriated," Corbett said. "That indicates to me that the legislature and everybody needs to take a look at how money is being spent and how it is directed and who is controlling it."
Veon, 52, a former House majority whip who lost a reelection bid in 2006, was charged with more than two dozen counts of theft, conflict of interest, and other offenses on allegations he used tens of thousands in state grants for political purposes.
A grand jury in Pittsburgh found that Veon - who served 22 years in the House from Beaver, a town about 15 miles northwest of Pittsburgh - had used grants he secured for the Beaver Initiative for Growth, or BIG, to pay bonuses to campaign staff and for leases on political offices, among other things. And it found that Veon had arranged for a consulting company to hire his brother, Mark, for $160,000 over 18 months after that company received a contract from BIG.
Attempts to reach Veon's attorney were unsuccessful.
Also charged yesterday was Veon's former top aide, Annamarie Peretta-Rosepink, 46. She had worked as a legislative aide and the top financial officer at BIG.
Veon, known as a shrewd political strategist, formed the nonprofit in 1991 as a clearinghouse for state grants to be used for economic development in Beaver. Veon, the grand jury found, told BIG aides in 2003 to expect major grants because Gov. Rendell, a Democrat, had just taken office.
Between 1998 and 2002, the group received $659,000 in state grants. That skyrocketed to $9.9 million from 2003 to 2006. Of the $4.7 million spent by BIG from 2004 to 2006, only 23 percent - less than $1.1 million - went to program expenses. The other 77 percent went for salary, consultants, and administrative costs, the grand jury found.
BIG operated an office in Beaver County and an office on the South Side of Pittsburgh - offices that were never staffed by a BIG employee and were allegedly used as satellite legislative offices for campaign purposes. About $84,000 in BIG money was misappropriated for the rents, the grand jury found.
In July, Veon became the biggest name among 12 House Democratic insiders ensnared by a separate grand jury in Harrisburg examining what has become known as Bonusgate. Veon, Corbett has alleged, orchestrated and carried out a scheme to give large government bonuses - $1.7 million over two years - to legislative staffers as rewards for working on campaigns.
Charged with 59 counts, Veon is awaiting trial in that case.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
I'm amazed. They actually mentioned that he is a Democrat.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/27/2009 7:24 Comments ||
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Philly.com is owned in part by the Toll Bros., who are conservative. Unfortunately, it is circling the drain.
Here's the $9.3 trillion question for Michiganders: "How would you and your family survive if Michigan were to lose another 121,000 jobs and gas prices go up 141% and electricity costs rise 177%? Is your family ready for that additional economic blow?"
I suspect the answer is a resounding "no."
The economy has already taken a toll on every Michigan family. We all have one or more relatives who were forced move to another state to find work; or we know someone struggling to pay their mortgage or car loan; or we have seen new college grads take their degree to a better job climate in some other state.
Nothing would make us happier than to hear that Washington DC is poised to solve what ails our economy. Unfortunately, President Barack Obama new budget is loaded with additional job-killing programs and spending. For Michigan, it will be just one more kick in the gut.
The President's budget calls for the creation of a "cap and trade" program that would actually cap and tax carbon dioxide emissions, resulting in the death of manufacturing jobs across the country. Some have said the "cap and trade" plan to trade emissions on Wall Street will "sink Michigan."
According to the National Association of Manufacturers, cap and tax could cost Michigan as many as 121,000 jobs by 2030, increase the price of gasoline as much as 141% and electricity by 177% .
Such a plan might make great theory in an Ivy League classroom, but in the real world it would wreak devastation on millions of Americans who manufacture things like cars and car parts and furniture and millions of other things that create jobs and impact our way of life.
The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office estimates that President Obama's budget will force the U.S. to borrow $9.3 trillion. That equates to more than $120,000 per family of four, or 14 years worth of groceries for the average family of four.
Where would we borrow that money (because we don't have the cash ourselves)? The U.S. would have to sell bonds, or issue IOUs, to nations like China and Saudi Arabia, effectively sentencing future generations to debtor's prison. In fact, recently Secretary of State Hillary Clinton traveled to China to make the case for the Communist government to continue buying U.S. debt.
Without question, President Bush, and Republicans and Democrats in Congress spend too much money. Congress has committed more of Americans' tax dollars in the past year than the equivalent cost of all of America's wars throughout the nation's history combined.
What does all this borrowing by the federal government mean for Michigan ? Many experts believe it will lead to a "crowding out" of the credit market, meaning families and small businesses likely will have an even harder time getting a loan to buy a new home or car, start a new small business or get a student loan. Experts tell us the unprecedented level of borrowing will increase inflation, making our savings worth less and making everything from bread and milk to a new home more expensive.
Finally, President Obama's budget calls for the largest tax increase in American history in 2011. In an effort to tax the "rich," the tax increase would hit as many small businesses as individuals. Yet as much as 80% of new jobs are created by America's small businesses, who are already struggling to remain competitive and keep their employees working.
Although there are certainly things to like in the President's budget for Michigan, like extended unemployment benefits or funding for advanced battery research, Michigan cannot afford the weight of the job-killing "cap and trade" program, or the massive increase in borrowing and small business tax increases.
I believe Congress and President Obama need a more common sense approach. Higher energy prices, unsustainable borrowing and punishing small business owners and working families are not the solutions Michigan or other states desperately need to turn our economy around.
Mike Rogers is a U.S. Congressman representing Michigan's 8th. Write him here.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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Michigan is a basket case of policy, next to rep ellis who shall surely turn his state into a glob of moslem BS and spending that also chases out everyone. Next thing you know, they sit in the congress building over an empty state.
Terry McAuliffe came under fire from a Democratic opponent in the race for Virginia governor yesterday for accepting fundraising help from a top Republican lobbyist -- the sharpest attack yet targeting McAuliffe's history as a Washington political insider.
Democrat Brian Moran chastised McAuliffe for teaming up Tuesday with Ed Rogers, a lobbyist and frequent TV commentator who carried the Republican message last year with pointed references to President Obama's middle name, Hussein.
The jab from Moran, an Alexandria lawyer, represented the first skirmish in a three-way Democratic primary that is likely to become increasingly sharp-edged as Moran and state Sen. R. Creigh Deeds of Bath seek to offset McAuliffe's high-wattage personality and ability to raise money.
It was also the first of what are likely to be numerous attempts before the June 9 vote to turn the political career of McAuliffe, former chairman of the Democratic National Committee, into a liability.
Moran's campaign manager, Andrew Roos, said that McAuliffe's willingness to take money from a Republican operative who fought Obama is "unconscionable" and "no different than having a fundraiser with Rush Limbaugh." But a fundraiser Tuesday hosted in part by Rogers illustrates something else, too, Roos said: McAuliffe's deep ties to the political culture of Washington and its lobbying industry.
"These are the people that have made 'lobbyist' a bad word for so many Americans," Roos said.
McAuliffe's campaign responded swiftly, saying that such fundraisers are essential if he is to gather enough money to compete in the fall against former attorney general Robert F. McDonnell, the presumptive Republican gubernatorial nominee.
Spokeswoman Elisabeth Smith said McAuliffe's Washington ties are irrelevant in a campaign that is about Virginia and in which he has promised to produce jobs and limit the money he takes from companies receiving federal bailout funds.
"Terry McAuliffe has a long history of standing up to corporate corruption, including throwing Enron lobbyists out of his office at the DNC," Smith said.
A Deeds spokeswoman, Brooke Borkenhagen, said the skirmish will hurt the party. "The stakes are too high in this election."
At issue was a fundraiser Tuesday at the offices of the BGR Group, a lobbying firm, in Northwest Washington. The invitation advertised a "recommended minimum" donation of $1,000, and it featured 11 event chairs, including Rogers, who helped found BGR as a Republican-leaning company in the 1990s.
McAuliffe's campaign said that BGR is a "bipartisan" firm and that all of the other event chairs were Democrats, including longtime McAuliffe friend Jonathan Mantz, former national finance director for Hillary Rodham Clinton. Mantz was the principal host of the event, he and others said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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The midterm elections are more than a year away, but voters who live in the small towns and rolling farms of Upstate New York are providing an early look at how President Obama's economic policies may play out on the campaign trail in 2010.
Months before races heat up elsewhere, two candidates here are vying for an open House seat in the nation's only competitive special election -- a swing district where the $787 billion stimulus law and bonuses paid to AIG executives have become key issues. The winner may provide a blueprint for how to campaign next year in an election that will decide control of Congress.
Democrats built wide majorities in the 2006 and 2008 elections with support from traditionally Republican districts such as this one, and both parties are searching for clues for whether that trend will continue in 2010. The seat is now vacant because its congresswoman, Democrat Kirsten Gillibrand, was chosen to serve the remaining Senate term of Secretary of State Hillary Rodham Clinton.
"One element of the race is whether we move beyond the last four years or not," said Stuart Rothenberg of the non-partisan Rothenberg Political Report, which calls Tuesday's election a tossup. "A lot of politics is mood and momentum, and the Republicans really need a win."
The candidates, Republican James Tedisco and Democrat Scott Murphy, have battled for weeks over Obama's response to the economy and now the American International Group bonuses. Both are echoing messages heard in Washington: Murphy says the stimulus is imperfect but necessary to stem further job losses, and Tedisco argues the measure includes wasteful spending that will not help the economy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
One issue is race, and the other is spending that you cannot pay for. Whats to disagree with?!!!!
KARL ROVE
Something powerful is stirring in the land, and it may not be good news for President Barack Obama, his agenda or the Democratic Party. Mr. Obama said Tuesday night his budget moves America "from an era of borrow and spend" to "save and invest." But people are realizing he would add $9.3 trillion to the national debt, doubling it in six years and nearly tripling it in 10 years, according to the Congressional Budget Office (CBO). How can that be "save and invest"?
In his inaugural address, Mr. Obama told us, "The stale political arguments that have consumed us for so long no longer apply." He wants to turn to new issues of education, health care and green jobs, which he plugged at every opportunity in Tuesday's press conference.
Suddenly, though, it doesn't seem like a time of new politics and new concerns. Many Americans are anxious -- and in some cases angry -- about a set of old issues: deficits, taxes and the national debt. Mr. Obama's radical budget, his administration's slapdash operating manner, and events such as the AIG bonuses have revived animosity over government's size and cost.
In response, tea parties are sprouting up, and opposition is growing to more bailouts, more spending, higher taxes and larger deficits, even among Congressional Democrats.
Last fiscal year, the deficit was $459 billion. For this fiscal year, it was $569 billion when Mr. Obama took office. Under his proposals, another $1.276 trillion will be added to the deficit this year, for a total of $1.845 trillion.
The CBO says deficits will fall for three years to $658 billion, still nearly 50% larger than any past deficit. After that, deficits go back up every year, reaching the trillion-dollar a year mark again in nine years. By 2019, the debt would reach 82.4% of GDP, a level not seen since 1947. With astonishing candor, even Peter Orszag, the president's budget director conceded these levels of deficits and debt are "unsustainable."
Federal spending will under Mr. Obama top $4 trillion this year. This translates into 28.5% of GDP -- a level exceeded only at the height of World War II. According to the president's plans, spending will thereafter slow for three years, but then grow faster than the economy for the next seven years and beyond. Spending rises by $3.1 trillion from 2009-19, including $911 billion for legislation signed during his first two months in office, including the stimulus bill and the expansion of the State Children's Health Insurance Program (and not including interest on the mushrooming debt). Mr. Obama is violating every tenet of his promise "to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day."
Americans are also worried about Mr. Obama's plans for $1.9 trillion more in taxes. These tax hikes won't just affect the "rich," as he claims. His cap-and-trade carbon tax will hit everyone who consumes energy -- that is, every American. Taxes on the top 5% of filers will result in lost jobs and wages for small businesses and less charitable giving. The administration claims higher taxes are required for deficit reduction. But its spending increases are half again as large as its tax hikes.
Nothing has deterred the administration from pursuing its staggeringly expensive agenda. Mr. Obama brushed off any concerns Tuesday night. He is quite openly using the economic crisis to launch a massive, permanent expansion of government financed by ever-more borrowing and ever-higher taxes. This may mean that his goal is to cause taxes to rise to European levels, transforming America into a European-style social democracy.
The dynamic he has set in motion could spur the emergence of strong competitors to Mr. Obama in 2012 who take a strong, principled stand against record-setting deficits, debt and taxes. It may also strengthen Republican chances in next year's midterm elections.
Democrats should, for example, be troubled by a new National Public Radio poll showing Republicans tied or ahead in generic matchups for Congress. And while the midterms are 20 months off, Republican gubernatorial hopefuls in Virginia (Attorney General Bob McDonnell) and New Jersey (former U.S. Attorney Chris Christie) are ahead in two states Barack Obama carried last year that vote this fall.
Tuesday night's news conference showed a fluid, self-assured president -- but one who seems to think that repeating a false argument will make it true. The man who promised to end "finger-pointing" has developed the habit of blaming everyone who came before him. Invoking the language of fiscal responsibility, he is engineering prosperity-killing deficits and bankrupting spending. Mr. Obama has put front and center a set of issues -- spending and taxation -- that brought Republicans to power in the past and may bring them back again. It looks as if we may be heading back to the future.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/27/2009 00:00 ||
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#1
Everything is new again. Jimmy carter with a marxist swagger and a juniper of heavenly knowledge from the congress. Smartness all around from the man made messiah and pelosi's flying monkeys.
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
Prime Minister Kevin Rudd is standing by his Defence Minister, but says he is disappointed Joel Fitzgibbon failed to declare gifts he received from a Chinese-born businesswoman. 
