Archive for the ‘Obama Watch’ Category
Glen was one of the first commentator to support Shirley Sherrod who outed from her job at USDA without justification for a speech she gave last spring to the NAACP referring to a white farmer looking for help. Her speech was taken out of context and no one from the government or NAACP investigated the release video before coming to conclusions.
By Warner Todd Huston
My good friend, Ken Marrero over at Blue Collar Muse, did some interesting research into where the money from Tennessee's share of the so-called stimulus payoff ends up going. Ken notes that there is a lot of money floating around but little of it goes to stimulate the economy. In fact, it seems that the lion's share goes to government and its grasping needs as opposed to the economy.
According to Marrero, The Volunteer State stands to have a windfall of $3,779,708,000 thanks to the pork-laden bill passed by Congress and President Obama. The list of payouts is impressive, but it really does show that only a small amount of the total could be considered an economic stimulant.
The list of recipients is instructive:
$771,610,000 on Education
$171,678,000 on "General Purpose"
$1,100,000,000 for Medicaid
$10,200,000 for the Foster Care system
$71,988,000 to mass transit capital grants
$20,394,000 to "clean water" programs
$57,814,000 to drinking water programs
$97,467,000 to something called "weatherization"
$59,065,000 to the state energy program
$7,199,000 for immunization
$2,614,000 for elderly nutrition
$41,932,000 to child care
$19,699,000 to the shadowy idea of "community services"
$2,069,000 to the "temporary emergency food assistance program"
$2,064,000 for emergency food and shelter
$11,500,000 for vocational rehabilitation
$174,210,000 for K thru 12 education
$50,386,000 for school improvement
$236,163,000 goes to the individuals with disabilities act
… well, this is just a tiny slice of the list that Marrero gives us — he also goes into detail about the items above. What his work does show is that few of these projects are economic projects. Instead what they are is grist for the mill of big government. Little of this money seems to be going to the economy in the form of helping business, assisting people with loans, or creating solid, long-term jobs.
In summation, Marrero says:
"Our totals are quite interesting. Of our total $3,779,708,000 – $1,246,017 goes to various Education programs, $1,100,000,000 goes to Medicaid leaving just $1,433,691,000 to spend on everything else. Almost two thirds of the money is excluded from stimulating the Economy in just two general items. Of the monies left, $771,282,000 also fails to stimulate the Economy, $662,409,000 falls under the “Maybe” category and only $12,979,000 has the appearance of true Stimulus spending."
But Tennessee is no different than any other state in this regard. Obama and his minions in Congress did nothing to stimulate a flagging economy. This bill is meant for one thing and one thing only: to enlarge government and infuse the people's money into dubious programs of little worth as a way to self-perpetuate government.
This porkulus bill is more proof than ever that we now have a government of the government, by government, and for the government. And like cancer it grows to kill its host.
About the author
Warner Todd Huston is a Staff Writer for the New Media Alliance, Inc. (http://www.thenma.org/). The New Media Media Alliance is a non-profit (501c3) national coalition of writers, journalists and grass roots media outlets
Washington, D.C. – At least $8.6 billion of President Obama’s proposed $1.2 trillion stimulus plan is meant to fund dubious special interest policy initiatives of environmental activists and should immediately be jettisoned, says Deneen Borelli, full-time Fellow with the Project 21 national black leadership network.
"It's outrageous that taxpayer money is slated to be used to fund the agenda of environmental special interest groups. These special interest groups are using global warming alarmism to fund dubious projects while discouraging the use of fossil fuels," says Borelli. "If liberal lawmakers really cared about stimulating the economy, they would remove rules and regulations that block the development of more fossil fuels. This would provide good-paying jobs and lower energy costs for Americans. Instead, they appear only interested in using their combined force of money, power and influence to fleece taxpayers of their money and their freedom."
Among the green earmarks in the bill legislation cited by Borelli:
After just two weeks in office, the Obama administration is having a hard time living up to the Obama campaign's mantra of change for the better. Unless, of course, "better" is defined as an administration made up of a handful of tax cheats and broken promises.
While much of the United States is still basking in the afterglow of an historic election and an inspiring inauguration, much of the world is looking at Obama's first two weeks in office with in credulousness.
From a policy perspective, several countries have voiced concerns about the protectionist aspects of Obama's "stimulus" bill currently making its way through the US Senate. Meanwhile, even left-leaning France has rejected an Obama-style spending binge.
Read the rest of this article at World News Examiner.
By Alan Caruba
In 1939, ten years after the crash on Wall Street, the Secretary of the Treasury, Henry Morgenthau, Jr., told the House Ways and Means Committee:
“We have tried spending money. We are spending more than we have ever spent before and it does not work. And I have just one interest, and if I am wrong…somebody else can have my job. I want to see this country prosperous. I want to see people get a job. I want to see people get enough to eat. We have never made good on our promises…I say after eight years of this administration we have just as much unemployment as when we started…And an enormous debt to boot!”
Does history repeat itself? Yes, it does. And there is every appearance that the White House and the Congress intends to repeat many of the errors of the last Depression that came to be known as Franklin Delano Roosevelt’s New Deal.
With exquisite timing, after ten years of research, professor of history, Burton Folsom, Jr. has published “New Deal or Raw Deal? How FDR’s Economic Legacy has Damaged America” ($27.00, Threshold Editions).
To get an idea of just how bad the U.S. economy was during the 1930’s, Folsom notes that, even though the U.S. had budget surpluses in 1930 and 1931, government spending “ballooned and far outstripped revenue from taxes.” It was the Wall Street Crash of 1929 that precipitated the Depression, but it was FDR’s
Initially voted into office in 1933, from 1937 to 1939 “the value of all stocks dropped almost in half…Car sales plummeted one-third in those same years, and were lower in 1939 than in any of the last seven years of the 1920s. Business failures jumped 50 percent from 1937 to 1939; patent applications for inventions were lower in 1939 than for any years of the 1920s. Real estate foreclosures, which did decrease steadily in the 1930s, were still higher in 1939 than in any years during the next two decades.”
FDR was an enormously popular President in his day. His photo could be found everywhere in people’s homes and apartment, in barbershops, in businesses, and just about anywhere people gathered, but he not only did not solve the nation’s economic problems, he made them worse with the help of a Congress. By 1936 Congress was totally dominated by the Democrat Party in ways that exceeded any previous party for 150 years.
CHICAGO – President Obama has made a major mistake and put America’s families at risk by selecting David Ogden to become Deputy Attorney General, says Fidelis, a pro-family organization.
“David Ogden is a hired gun from Playboy and ACLU. He can’t run from his long record of opposing common sense laws protecting families, women, and children. The United States Senate has a responsibility to the American people to insure that Mr. Ogden’s full record is fully reviewed before any vote on his nomination” said Brian Burch, President of Fidelis.
“Ogden’s record is nothing short of obscene. He has represented Playboy Enterprises in multiple cases, Penthouse Magazine, the ACLU, and the largest distributor of hard-core pornography videos. He has opposed filters on library computers protecting children from Internet smut, and successfully defended the right of pornographers to produce material with underage children.”
“David Ogden has collected checks from Playboy and Penthouse to fight any attempts to establish filters on federally-funded public libraries. Ogden even sued the federal government in an attempt to publish Braille versions of Playboy magazine – at taxpayer expense, of course,” said Burch.
As a lawyer in private practice, Ogden has argued for an unlimited abortion license, gays in the military, and has urged courts to treat traditional definitions of marriage as a social prejudice.
“A vast majority of Americans support parental notification before a minor’s abortion and protecting kids from Internet pornography in our libraries,” continued Burch. “Yet David Ogden has fought tooth and nail against these common sense laws protecting our children from harm. At a time when America’s families are under increasing assault, Mr. Ogden is a dangerous choice for a position whose responsibilities include the enforcement of our nation’s laws. “
For a full report on David Ogden’s disappointing legal record, visit www.fidelis.org