"Man-Caused Disasters"

No, we’re not referring to Obama’s economic policies, but how our DHS Secretary refers to terrorism:

SPIEGEL: Madame Secretary, in your first testimony to the US Congress as Homeland Security Secretary you never mentioned the word “terrorism.” Does Islamist terrorism suddenly no longer pose a threat to your country?

NAPOLITANO: Of course it does. I presume there is always a threat from terrorism. In my speech, although I did not use the word “terrorism,” I referred to “man-caused” disasters. That is perhaps only a nuance, but it demonstrates that we want to move away from the politics of fear toward a policy of being prepared for all risks that can occur.

To put it in terms that Napolitano will apparently understand, this is double-plus-ungood.

The Constitution is Effectively DOA.

So sayeth the sages in the U.S. House of Representatives in passing HR 1586, which imposes a whopping

…90% tax to only the portion of a bonus that, in combination with other income, increases an employee’s adjusted gross income to a level above $250,000 ($125,000 for married couples filing individually) in the taxable year when the bonus was received. Therefore, employees with adjusted gross incomes of less than $250,000 (including bonuses) would not be impacted.

Correct me if I’m wrong, but I thought ex-post facto laws were done away by the Constitution in 1798:

An ex post facto law is a law passed after the occurrence of an event or action which retrospectively changes the legal consequences of the event or action.

The fact alone that the authors of TARP and the stimulus bill are the ones who allowed the bonuses in the first place and wrote them in the legislation is in itself outrageous.

If this were done on a straight party-line vote, it would have been heinous enough, yet understandable, because democrats don’t give a whit about and/or are clueless regarding Constitutional principles, anyway.

But the thing about it is, the measure passed by a 328-90 margin, meaning that many REPUBLICANS likewise threw the Constitution under the bus today. The following is a list of 84 Republicans who at the very least, need to get schooled regarding Constitutional Law:

Obama's Feigned Outrage Over AIG

Obama pretends like he is accepting responsibility for the AIG bonus scandal, but, as I said before, Obama is still passing the buck.

Marc Thiessen, over at NRO’s The Corner, notes how Obama is directly responsible for the AIG bonus scandal, and not only that, he and the Democrats own it.

President Obama has expressed outrage over the AIG bailouts. “I’m angry too,” he says. He wasn’t told by the Treasury secretary for days, the White House says.

Why are Republicans letting him get away with it?

President Obama rammed through the stimulus bill — over Republican objections — that explicitly protected the AIG bonuses.

Here is the language from page H1412 of the final stimulus bill, SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:

em>(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.

Not a single House Republican voted for this bill and only three Republicans in the Senate did. Obama owns it.

Let’s also keep in mind that not only was it Obama and the Democrats who wanted this pushed through quickly and without oversight, but he, Chris Dodd, and other Democrats were getting campaign cash from AIG. 

Obama isn’t outraged about the bonuses for his campaign contributors… he is outraged that the country found out.

Russia's Economic Collapse

You think we’re in bad shape:

…Russia’s dependency on oil is pushing the country’s economy into a tailspin. Oil peaked at $147 a barrel in July but has since plunged as low as $35 a barrel. As a result of the plummeting oil price and the global financial crisis, gross domestic product shrank by 8.8% in the 12 months to January, the rouble has lost one-third of its value since September and unemployment is expected to rise to 10 million by the end of the year. The Kremlin has spent more than $200bn of its reserves to cushion the devaluation of the rouble and avoid public panic.

Neil Shearing, emerging Europe economist at consultants Capital Economics, believes the situation is going to get much worse. “The news from Russia has gone from bad to worse in recent weeks. The economy looks likely to contract by 5% this year, which would be close to the drop in output witnessed during the 1998 rouble crisis,” he said, referring to the year when the government defaulted on its debts, sending shockwaves through the global financial system. “In contrast to the 1998 crisis, a weak external environment makes a sharp bounceback in growth unlikely.”…

…Unemployment is widely expected to soar to 12% this year from 6.3% in 2008 as firms struggle to access finance. “This will spell disaster for an economy in which private consumption accounts for over half of GDP,” said Shearing. About 500,000 Russians are waiting to be paid wages which are late and since inflation is running at 13%, their purchasing power is slipping rapidly.

Take financial collapse, massive unemployment, runaway inflation and add tyrant (Putin). What to you get? Risk of nuclear-armed civil war and/or risk of Putin making a mad dog attack in order to start a war to stifle dissent at home. This is not a pretty picture.

What can we do? Strengthen our alliances with nations on Russia’s borders, eschew any long-term deals with Putin’s government and then just hunker down and hope for the best.

Obama Administration Theme Song

We do need one, ya know? As for me, taking all things into consideration, I nominate this song:

Sexy Sadie what have you done

You made a fool of everyone

You made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie ooh what have you done.

Sexy Sadie you broke the rules

You layed it down for all to see

You layed it down for all to see

Sexy Sadie oooh you broke the rules.

One sunny day the world was waiting for a lover

She came along to turn on everyone

Sexy Sadie the greatest of them all.

Sexy Sadie how did you know

The world was waiting just for you

The world was waiting just for you

Sexy Sadie oooh how did you know.

Sexy Sadie you’ll get yours yet

However big you think you are

However big you think you are

Sexy Sadie oooh you’ll get yours yet.

We gave her everything we owned just to sit at her table

Just a smile would lighten everything

Sexy Sadie she’s the latest and the greatest of them all.

She made a fool of everyone

Sexy Sadie.

However big you think you are

Sexy Sadie.

Discuss.

UPDATE by MATT MARGOLIS: Mark, I think my vote is for “Over My Head (Cable Car)” by The Fray:

Dodd: Obama To Blame For AIG Bonuses…

Republican criticisms may not hold water with the faithful left… but now Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) is blaming the Obama administration for the AIG bonus scandal…

Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Obama administration asked him to insert a provision in last month’s $787 billion economic- stimulus legislation that had the effect of authorizing American International Group Inc.’s bonuses.

Dodd, a Connecticut Democrat, said yesterday he agreed to modify restrictions on executive pay at companies receiving taxpayer assistance to exempt bonuses already agreed upon in contracts. He said he did so without realizing the change would benefit AIG, whose recent $165 million payment to employees has sparked a public furor.

Dodd said he had wanted to limit executive compensation at companies that got money from the government’s financial-rescue fund. AIG has received $173 billion in bailout money. His provision was changed as the stimulus legislation was negotiated between the House and Senate.

“I did not want to make any changes to my original Senate- passed amendment” to the stimulus bill, “but I did so at the request of administration officials, who gave us no indication that this was in any way related to AIG,” Dodd said in a statement released last night.

“Let me be clear — I was completely unaware of these AIG bonuses until I learned of them last week,” said Dodd, who didn’t name the administration officials who made the request.

In all fairness, Dodd is one of the most vulnerable Democrats in the Senate in 2010… and he may be trying to shift blame away from himself to save his chances of reelection, which this scandal most certainly hurts. Still, Barack Obama is responsible in that he signed the legislation that made those bonuses possible.

Sadly, Barack Obama, is not taking the blame… though he thinks he can save face by claiming to “accept responsibility.”

“Nobody here drafted those contracts (providing for the bonuses). Nobody here was responsible for supervising AIG and allowing themselves to put the economy at risk by some of the outrageous behavior that they were engaged in,” Obama said. “We are responsible, though. The buck stops with me. And my goal is to make sure that we never put ourselves in this kind of position again.”

Sorry, but signing into law a bill that allowed for those bonuses means you aren’t just responsible for the bonuses… but it means you are partially to blame. Accepting responsibility after denying any role in the situation is meaningless, especially when his signature allowed for those bonuses to happen.

Once again, Obama is passing the buck, even though he is pretending not to.

UPDATE, by Mark Noonan: And here’s the people who got AIG money:

Some of the donations to lawmakers include Sen. Chris Dodd (D-Conn.), $103,100;then-Senator, now President Barack Obama(D-Ill.), $101,332; then-Senator, now Vice President Joe Biden (D-Del.), $19,975; Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.), $59,499; former Sen. Hillary Clinton (D-N.Y.), $35,965; Sen. Dick Durbin (D-Ill.), $11,000; and Sen. Max Baucus, (D-MT), $24,750.

“During that period of time when these companies were imploding and coming to the American people and asking for funds — I think political contributions coming during that time to Senator Dodd or others certainly bears further examination,” Pence told CNSNews.com.

Now, liberals, you were quick to demand that GOPers tainted with Abramoff money resign…what do you wish to do to Democrats tainted with AIG money?

Mad as Heck…

…and not going to take it any longer? Victor Davis Hanson notes:

There is a populist anger out there, hard to calibrate exactly, but growing nonetheless. Here’s what I think people are saying: Wall Street gets bailed out, despite billions that the masters of the universe skimmed off. Meanwhile our retirement accounts are crashed. Then the government bails out those ‘homeowners’ who failed, often due to their own greed and foolishness, not those who played by the rules: so default on your over priced home that you should have never bought, and the fed is there to bail you out; put away $1,000 a month in your 401(k)—and tough luck.

No new taxes of course for “all of us” except the evil “them,” but rumors still somehow abound that health care benefits will be taxed, carbon emissions will be taxed, and even veterans will pay for their care via private accounts before drawing on VA resources. And why would not Obama resort to more bait and switch to pay for a $3.5 trillion budget—when that proverbial evil 5% simply does not have the wherewithal to make up for the 50% who pay no federal income tax at all?

This growing unease is a weird sort of prairie-fire populism, focused on both Wall Street and still more the government. (Who is worse, the AIG execs that praise capitalism, then want federal handouts to ensure their bonuses, or the incompetent and unethical government who feeds them the cash [”hope and change”?]—or we the poor fools who will keep working to pay for all this?)

Where it all leads I don’t know.

I don’t know, either – but I’m pretty certain that liberalism isn’t doing itself any favors right now. When Rasmussen for the first time in years picks up that GOPers are more favored than Democrats in the “generic” Congressional ballot, we’re clearly seeing a political whirlwind on the horizon. Will it actually benefit the GOP? Can’t say – people are still pretty ticked off at us, too. 2010 might be an excellent year to run as an Independent. Main thing – if a person is a smart politician, he won’t want to be identified in any way, shape or form with the Powers That Be in Washington at the moment.

I think what is happening is that people are, finally, getting fed up with it all – the lies coming out of Washington have gone from brazen to stupid. Its so obvious that, say, Dodd is lying to us about what is going on and what part he had in it – and the rest of them are only slightly less nauseating in their attitudes towards the people. When Obama tries to claim a populist mantle in this by grandly saying he’s responsible, people are seeing right through it – he’s saying he’s responsible as if he’s not, but willing to sacrifice himself for us and we’re supposed to think he’s such a swell guy for doing this…BS, Barry; we know that you really were responsible for it, and if you really wanted to take responsibility for it you’d be working for a repeal of your Spendulus so it could be re-written with a bit of honesty and common sense thrown in to the mix. Maybe on a re-do we can actually not pass the bill until everyone’s read it?

A little revolution, now and then, is a good thing. And we need it, dear people, we need it.

Federal Reserve Fires Up the Printing Press

The news story:

The Federal Reserve sharply stepped up its efforts to bolster the economy on Wednesday, announcing that it would pump an extra $1 trillion into the financial system by purchasing Treasury bonds and mortgage securities.

Having already reduced the key interest rate it controls nearly to zero, the central bank has increasingly turned to alternatives like buying securities as a way of getting more dollars into the economy, a tactic that amounts to creating vast new sums of money out of thin air. But the moves on Wednesday were its biggest yet, almost doubling all of the Fed’s measures in the last year.

The action makes the Fed a buyer of long-term government bonds rather than the short-term debt that it typically buys and sells to help control the money supply.

The idea was to encourage more economic activity by lowering interest rates, including those on home loans, and to help the financial system as it struggles under the crushing weight of bad loans and poor investments.

Investors responded with surprise and enthusiasm. The Dow Jones industrial average, which had been down about 50 points just before the announcement, jumped immediately and ended the day up almost 91 points at 7,486.58. Yields on long-term Treasury bonds dropped markedly, and analysts predicted that interest rates on fixed-rate mortgages would soon drop below 5 percent.

Get ready for a gigantic bubble which will either burst with a financial crisis which makes the current one look small, or the Fed tightening the screws later this year or early next and knocking us willy-nilly into a double-dip recession. In my long study of history, I don’t think I’ve ever come across a more short-sighted and bone-headed policy move. Imagine the idiocy which figures that if you steal money from the people you’ll be able to create wealth.

Steal? Yes, steal. You see, by waving their magic wand and creating a trillion dollars, the Fed has effectively devalued all of the money outstanding the moment before the Fed acted. This will help bankers and financial speculators – they’ll now be able to obtain devalued currency to pay back loans contracted with pre-devaluation money. It works like this – I borrow $10 from you today. Tomorrow, the Fed devalues the currency by 20%. I borrow this devalued money from the Fed at 0% interest and then pay you your $10 back with $1 interest the day after tomorrow – but you didn’t get $11; you actually got $8.80 because each dollar is worth 20 cents less than it did when you loaned it to me. Its real cool, unless you’re the guy holding the pre-devaluation notes…and guess who is buying up the pre-devaluation notes? Look in the mirror. And thank your Barry for the swell deal.

It’d be nice if, at least, this would work in the long run – but it won’t. Its going to spike inflation like no tomorrow (and we’re talking 10, 20 or 30% inflation, boys and girls) unless it gets cut off real fast, and that means the funds for moving the economy along will be gone…so, welcome to 25% unemployment. Of course, there’s always that chance we’ll get “stagflation”, as we did in the 70′s…won’t 20% inflation and 20% unemployment be a kick?

We’re being swindled – we’re balancing the banks’ books on the back of the middle class taxpayer. And some people wonder why I want us to return to the gold standard…

Prayer Request

Dear Readers,

As you might recall, last week I brought my father to the hospital where it was discovered that he was bleeding internally. That particular issue is at least temporarily stable, but the plain fact of the matter is that my father’s manifold health problems at age 82 indicate that the end draws near.

I ask your prayers that my father will be at ease as he enters this time and that we all accept God’s will in this as in all matters.

My Latest Blogs At American Issues Project

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