WASHINGTON: Late last year, the President’s chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, was quoted as saying “you never want a serious crisis to go to waste, and what I mean by that is an opportunity to do things that you didn’t think you could do before.” The stimulus bill, a fine piece of prevarication, was passed under an imminent sense of crisis, and it is this sense of crisis that acts as a powerful conduit to ram controversial bills through the legislative process. It is a strategy that the Obama administration wields often and effectively.

But why wait for a crisis to come to you? What if a crisis could be created to serve a particular purpose? This appears to be what Democrats had in mind when the House passed H.R. 2454 The American Clean Energy and Security Act of 2009. Best known as the Cap and Trade Bill, it purports to tackle the challenge of Global Warming, or if you prefer– Climate Change. Guaranteed to have a dire economic impact upon our nation, the Cap and Trade Bill has another potential dark side, a legislatively fabricated crisis. Read more…

WASHINGTON: The AP reported an hour ago that the Federal deficit hit a record high in October, $176.4 billion. (Just billions… nothing to worry about, now that the trillion has become the new billion). This comes during a time of plunging revenues while at the same time Congress is spending borrowed money at a record rate.

According to Martin Crutsinger and Daniel Wagner of the AP:

The deficit for the 2009 budget year, which ended on Sept. 30, set an all-time record in dollar terms of $1.42 trillion. That was $958 billion above the 2008 deficit, the previous record holder. [Emphasis added]

October was the 13th straight month to show a monthly deficit — another record. It was the fifth-largest monthly deficit ever.  Martin Crutsinger and Daniel Wagner, Newser.com

The 2008 deficit, the previous record holder: $462 billion. The 2009 deficit: $1.42 trillion, three times larger than the largest deficit on record. And to think some in Congress are calling for Stimulus II.

You can see the effect on the National Debt at our running counter on the right. We hope US citizens are saving money to pay all this back. Either that or voters might want to start thinking about replacing this administration.

WASHINGTON: House Speaker Nancy Pelosi was asked on November 9th if she was OK with sending the uninsured to jail. If you listen to her response she seems to indicate that poor people won’t have to buy health insurance, they will get it free. However the rest of us will have to pay the piper or do jail time. This seems to be OK as far as she is concerned.

This is a good strategy for Democrats who passed this bill as it picks up even more voters who free-ride the system while costing them only votes from Libertarians and Republicans who won’t vote for them anyway. You can see her response to this question in this video from Komo 4 News (ABC Seattle): Read more…

WORLD PRESS: What is becoming an alarming trend is the need to search press reports from outside the US to find out what is going on in the Obama administration. Let’s look at the Obama Doctrine and see how it is working in the real world.

Let’s start with Obama’s inaugural address when the President told Iran “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.” How well did that go over with Mahmoud Ahmadinejad? The Jerusalem Post reports Ahmadinejad’s comments at the 25th Session of the Standing Committee for Economic and Commercial Cooperation of the Organization of the Islamic Conference on Tuesday: Read more…

WASHINGTON: It is now 72 days since the release of the McChrystal assessment dated August 30th. How long do we have to wait for Obama to answer McChrystal’s request for more troops? Apparently longer. White House aides seem to be indignant that anyone is even interested:

Angry at Monday’s CBS report (and the military sources who seem to be pushing it) that the President has already settled on an option that would send almost all the troops Gen. McChrystal has requested for Afghanistan, aides insist that Obama has not told anyone what he wants to do – and that he’s likely to continue to mull his options as he travels across Asia over the next 8 days. George Stephanopoulos, ABC News

Read more…

SING SING, NY: With the House’s passage of the health care bill late Saturday night, Nancy Pelosi and her cohorts on Capitol Hill have discovered a new breed of criminal, the uninsured. Although unrecognizable based on race or gender, there are other ways to spot these reprobates. They are often young and healthy, and if you should happen to spot one at a doctor’s office, you will notice that they pay for their visit with cash.

Do not be fooled by their docile appearance, the uninsured are a threat to the American society, and a threat that Rep. Pelosi takes seriously. So much so that on page 297 of H.R. 3962 Section 59B. “TAX ON INDIVIDUALS WITHOUT ACCEPTABLE HEALTH CARE COVERAGE”, the bill mandates that those without acceptable health care coverage will incur heavy fines and jail time. Read more…

COLUMBUS, Ohio: One of our alert staffers received a call to action in her email Wednesday from the Ohio PIRG. It was a call for action to support the government takeover of healthcare. We wondered why an apparently government funded organization would be lobbying taxpayers for the expansion of big government (silly us). Never having heard of the OH PIRG we did a little digging.

The letter we received from Meshawn Ayala (here) suggests that citizens of Ohio donate to a fund to persuade 6 members of congress to vote for the public option. That none of the 6 represent Ohio is irrelevant, apparently. The fundraising purportedly is aimed at small businesses: Read more…