A 7.0 magnitude earthquake shook Haiti into pieces and thousands are feared dead. You can help here. The least we can do is to offer a prayer. May the Lord have mercy on those who’ve perished and comfort those in pain; strengthen the relief workers and medical staff; and give wisdom to the world leaders to assist Haiti.
Please consider making a donation to the American Red Cross.
The Democrat from Pennsylvania died in Virginia from complication after a gallbladder surgery. He will be remembered for his service in Congress as well as in the Marines.
Rumor has it that New York Gov. Paterson has met with Democrat leaders to discuss him stepping down in anticipation of a NYT “bombshell” story about the governor. Oh, that and the question of his re-electability.
Many Republicans are looking to the Hawaii 1st Congressional District race for the next Scott Brown moment. Honolulu City Councilman Charles Djou (R) has a good chance of winning the seat because the May special election has no primaries and multiple Democratic candidates are likely to split votes, giving him an advantage. Even similarities have been drawn between Djou and Brown:
To be sure, they share plenty of superficial similarities – they’re both lawyers, both army reserve officers, both in typically Democratic jurisdictions and they’ve both seized upon the electorate’s desire for an independent representative.
With regards to his independent streak, Djou is already showing his stripes. He notes that the Republican Party has struggled to propose clear alternatives. “It is good that Republicans nationally have articulated what they are for, but it would be great if they could be… more forceful as to what they are for,” he said. “If the Republicans clearly articulated what they were in favor of, and the Democrats more willing to listen, there are compromises there.”
And the man has a good sense of humor too:
But the comparisons to Brown should only go so far, Djou insisted. “One big difference is, I have no nude photos in Cosmo,” he joked.
Noticeably absent from his campaign website is his stance on abortion (he’s pro-choice), even though there’s a section for “Faith and Family.” Abortion groups and PACs have contributed money to his campaign, and he’s ranked #13 (out of 19) among 2010 House candidates. Remember Dede Scozzafava in the NY-23 debacle? She’s ranked #2 (major support from pro-choice groups) and was labeled a RINO by most of the Right. Consequently, with conservatives rallying hard against her, her campaign imploded and faltered…
As much as I’d like to see another Republican victory in a blue state, I cannot endorse Charles Djou based on his pro-choice stance. Djou has made his independent, moderate voice a centerpiece of his platform — a good strategy considering HI-01 voters — but as a Christian conservative his “moderate” view on social issues is troubling.
Her participation at the convention in Nashville, TN was not without controversy, but whether you agree or disagree, whether you love or hate Palin, she was there and she commanded a following. She came on stage proclaiming “proud to be American,” gave thanks to the armed services members past and present, and acknowledged Ronald Reagan’s birthday on the day of her speech.
That’s what the Tea Party movement is all about, and that’s what Sarah Palin is about too.
Those on the left can attack her all they want, including using the mainstream media’s influence. But look at what happened to her popularity, coupled with the Tea Party supporters.
Many on the right also criticize her for disrupting the Republican establishment. But she was never about the establishment — in fact, ever since the start of her political career she was all about taking out the garbage.
As the mid-Atlantic region endures a couple more feet of wintry snow, we get news from half-way across the globe of more fallout from Climategate… Emerging economy India has decided to ditch the U.N. Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change — ironically headed by its own scientist Dr. R.K. Pachauri. India will establish its own National Institute of Himalayan Glaciology to monitor climate change’s impact on the glaciers:
“There is a fine line between climate science and climate evangelism. I am for climate science. I think people misused [the] IPCC report, [the] IPCC doesn’t do the original research which is one of the weaknesses… they just take published literature and then they derive assessments, so we had goof-ups on Amazon forest, glaciers, snow peaks.
“I respect the IPCC but India is a very large country and cannot depend only on [the] IPCC and so we have launched the Indian Network on Comprehensive Climate Change Assessment (INCCA),” he [India's environment minister Jairam Ramesh] said.
It will bring together 125 research institutions throughout India, work with international bodies and operate as a “sort of Indian IPCC,” he added.
The global warming movement is dead. Al Gore will have to find another job.
Lech Walesa — leader of the Polish Solidarity movement, Nobel Peace Prize recipient, and former president of Poland — has some strong words for President Obama and America under his administration:
He no longer thinks we are the last best hope for mankind. “The United States is only one superpower. Today they lead the world. Nobody has doubts about it, militarily,” the Polish leader said. “They also lead economically, but they’re getting weak.
“But they don’t lead morally and politically anymore. The world has no leadership. The United States was always the last resort and hope for all other nations. There was the hope, whenever something was going wrong, one could count on the United States. Today, we lost that hope.”
Morally and politically. Did you hear that, Mr. President? During your campaign and now upon your presidency, you have rejected an exceptional America, but clearly the world wants (and needs) us to stand out. Listen to Mr. Walesa’s words — he believed in America more than you do, Mr. President.
Today nobody is counting on the U.S. Our allies like Japan, Australia, and Israel have sensed this. Worse yet, our enemies such as al Qaeda, North Korea, and Iran have too. Our economy is being propped up by China and our foreign policy is non-existent. Ironically, the “hope and change” president leaves no hope in our minds and no change in our pockets.
Thank you, Mr. Walesa, for being a mirror.
Maybe Sen. Franken (D-MN) still thinks he’s hosting a radio show? For a freshman senator he sure has a senior personality. But I’ll give him kudos for standing up against W.H. senior advisor David Axelrod about the health care debacle:
The private session was set up in a panel format, with Axelrod joined at the front of the room by Democratic National Committee Chairman Tim Kaine and Democratic strategist Paul Begala.
A Democratic source said that Franken directed his criticism solely at Axelrod.
“It was all about leadership and health care and what the plan was going to be,” the source said.
Franken — a comedian turned liberal talk show host — vowed to keep a relatively low profile when he arrived in the Senate over the summer after a protracted legal battle with former GOP Sen. Norm Coleman. But he has developed a reputation among his colleagues as one of the more aggressive personalities on the Hill.
I can understand his frustration though. Before Scott Brown was sworn in the Democrats had control of both houses in Congress, yet the health care bill is still in limbo as the House and Senate leadership struggle to merge both versions of the bill. Passage is even more remote now that there are 41 Republicans in the Senate.
Nobody likes being in the losing team. Unfortunately for the likes of Franken and other Democrats in Congress, they’re part of it.
What could be a sign of more rough roads ahead than the fact that Social Security is now cash-negative? For the first time in decades, Social Security is taking in less taxes and cannot fulfill benefits:
No one has officially announced that Social Security will be cash-negative this year. But you can figure it out for yourself, as I did, by comparing two numbers in the recent federal budget update that the nonpartisan CBO issued last week.
The first number is $120 billion, the interest that Social Security will earn on its trust fund in fiscal 2010 (see page 74 of the CBO report). The second is $92 billion, the overall Social Security surplus for fiscal 2010 (see page 116).
This means that without the interest income, Social Security will be $28 billion in the hole this fiscal year, which ends Sept. 30.
Red flags have been raised about Social Security years ago, but nobody paid any attention. Social Security has become a program that no politician dares to meddle with for fear of upsetting voters. My generation already knows that Social Security wouldn’t last until our retirement, but of course we’re still paying the taxes to support it. Now the problem has gotten so big that any corrective action would surely be lasting and painful, but if Washington politicians have any ounce of sanity left in them, they would make the difficult choice and do the right thing.
As early as 5:00pm today, Scott Brown could be sworn in to become the 41st Republican senator, ending the Democrats’ filibuster-proof majority and therefore, making America a better place.
The video is down but I read the transcript and it made my blood boil. Starting on page 18 lists his atrocious acts, including the decapitation of Daniel Pearl.
And Eric Holder wanted this monster to stand trial in NYC like any American? He’ll forever tarnish the American justice system.
Fortunately for KSM we are a nation of law, and even an enemy combatant gets a fair trial albeit by a military tribunal. Most other countries would just shoot a bullet through the head.
President Obama has done absolutely nothing concrete to rein in rogue Iran with its human rights violations, constant public threats against our ally Israel, and nuclear development. And now it moves up in the space club, with an expansion of its space program:
Iran test-fired a new satellite rocket and unveiled a series of what it said were home-grown advances in a space program that has worried Western officials because of possible cross-over applications in the country’s weapons program.
In addition to the test-firing, President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad unveiled on Wednesday three new telecommunications satellites and a new satellite-carrier engine, according to state media.
Lovely. An Iran with nukes and sophisticated satellites. Of course, according to Ahmadinejad, all these technologies are for peaceful purposes only. Personally I believe this man is bent on attacking Israel before he steps down. I do not understand why this administration doesn’t consider him a highly dangerous tyrant in need of a whoop-ass.
Sarah Palin is putting her support behind Rand Paul, son of Rep. Ron Paul (R-TX), in the GOP Primary. It will be a battle between Paul and Kentucky Secretary of State Trey Grayson.
Grayson may have a tough road ahead… Palin and Ron Paul are both anti-establishment, populist figures who command a great following.
Great simple Q & A with David Walker, U.S. Comptroller from 1998-2008, about the perils of our ridiculous national debt:
Q. Say America was a person, how much credit card debt would America have?
A. Let’s put it this way: Spending last year was about $3.5 trillion. The deficit was $1.42 trillion, which means that revenues were about $2.1 trillion. So $2.1 trillion is equal to their annual income.
The total national debt right now is $12.3 trillion. So we owe five to six times more than we make every year. But that’s not the big deal.
In addition to that, there is another $45 trillion to $50 trillion in unfunded obligations that are off the balance sheet, which I think you ought to count. Medicare is the biggest part of it by far, and Social Security is a large part, too. So in reality, we owe between 25 and 30 times what we make every year.
Q. Is that like a balloon payment for a person, looming out there and we know we’re going to owe it?
A. It’s kind of like the mortgage-related sub-prime crisis, where there were a lot of off-balance-sheet obligations and contingencies that manifested themselves. I draw a lot of analogies between the mortgage-related subprime and the government’s finances, in that we want to avoid a super-sub-prime crisis.Q. For somebody going through their day, gassing up the car, dropping off the kids and going to work, why does the debt matter? How does it affect their lives?
A. We’re mortgaging the future of the country, and their children and grandchildren. At the same time, because of the growth of spending, we’re reducing the role of investments in our future because the budget on the discretionary side is getting squeezed at a time when America is facing growing competition in a global economy.
Also, there are two kinds of taxes: current taxes and deferred taxes. To the extent that we’re not paying our way now, somebody is going to end up having to pay down the road.
Q. When you say our children and grandchildren will pay for it, does that mean they will literally have higher taxes?
A. Much higher. If we don’t end up reforming our ways, federal taxes will have to double within the next 20 to 30 years, just to stop the bleeding.
Q. That money would go toward paying for our future obligations?
A. And toward paying interest on the federal debt. In fact within 12 years, without an increase in interest rates, interest on the national debt is expected to be the largest item in the budget. And you get nothing for it.Q. Who do we owe the money to?
A. Fifty percent is owed to foreign lenders. China is number one, Japan is number two, a block of oil producing nations comes next.Q. Do you think that affects our foreign policy toward China?
A. Yes, it does. It’s already been manifested because one of the reasons American tax payers now guarantee $5 trillion in Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac debt is because the Japanese and the Chinese demanded it.Q. Is there a point at which China could say, ‘We’ve decided to stop lending you money?’
A. What’s more likely is that China will say, ‘We’re not going to lend you money unless you pay us higher interest rates.’”Q. What should people expect their elected officials to do if they’re acting responsibly and taking care of the country?
A. In the short term the deficits are going to be high because of the recession, because of two wars, because of unemployment, but what we need to deal with is the structural imbalance. Once the economy recovers, once unemployment gets down, and the wars are over, we still have large and looming deficits. That’s what threatens the ship of state.President Obama says he wants to freeze a part of discretionary spending for three years. That’s a good first step, but we’re going to have to do a lot more than that. He supports pay-as-you-go rules, but there are big loopholes in the pay-as-you-go-rules. Thirdly, he talks about creating a fiscal commission that would make recommendations on tougher budget controls, Social Security, Medicare and tax reforms. We clearly need to do that to engage the American people and to get a vote in Congress in 2011. That’s very, very important to maintain the confidence of our foreign lenders…if we lose the confidence of our foreign lenders, we’re in deep trouble.
Q. What does trouble look like?
A. That means the dollar will drop dramatically, interest rates will go up, unemployment would go up dramatically and you’ll have something much worse than a recession. It would be ugly. The important thing is we can avoid that and that’s what the book’s about.
Q. I know that you talk to lawmakers and testify in front of their committees, but do you have confidence that people in office get it and will do what’s necessary to deal with the situation, even if it’s unpopular?
A. Washington is a lagging indicator, but people around the country are starting to get it. The Massachusetts election was an expression of frustration that Washington is out of touch with reality and not working properly, especially in this area. If the people speak up, their leaders will follow.
When will Florida Gov. Charlie Crist announce his withdrawal in the GOP Primary for U.S. Senate? I mean, down 12 points from star conservative candidate Marco Rubio?
The Justice Department and White House may be considering a new — umm, old? — venue to try master terrorist Khalid Sheik Mohammed. It was supposed to be NYC because Attorney General Eric Holder thinks that’s where the crime was committed. So naturally, NYC would be the place to hold the trial.
But guess what? Hell hath no fury like terrorist-hating New Yorkers scorned. And when New Yorkers are pissed, oh boy, they’d let you hear it all straight-up. So now the federal government is contemplating moving the KSM trial back to Gitmo, but the administration says it’s all Congress’ fault:
The administration is likely considering Gitmo because Congress is moving to cut off funding for holding the expensive trials in civilians courts.
Rep. Peter King (R-LI) has introduced a bill that would prohibit the use of Justice Department funds to try Guantanamo detainees in federal civilian courts, and Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-SC) said he would introduce a similar bill in the Senate next week.
The Washington Post, meanwhile, reports that wherever the terror trials are eventually held, it is virtually certain that they will not take place in New York City.
Police Commissioner Ray Kelly yesterday credited Mayor Bloomberg, who spoke out against the holding the trials in New York, with spurring the Obama administration to reconsider.
“I think the president responded to, certainly, the mayor’s statement yesterday and community concerns, and it, quite frankly, gives us a little more room in the Police Department,” he said.
“The mayor’s position is the right position, and I think the mayor was the reason it was moved.
“There was a lot of concern in the community. A lot of other political leaders were worried about it, but it wasn’t until the mayor made the statement that the White House reacted. It’s the right decision.”
Don’t allow KSM back on NYC soil. Do the right thing. It’s not about Bush policies or Obama policies. It’s doing what is best for NYC and for the country.
