Makes me wonder just how long it has been since someone advised her of the difference between truth and lies:

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) insisted on Friday that the Senate health care bill does not allow tax-funding of abortion, and added that she had spoken with “Catholic bishops” about the issue. However, the U.S. Conference of Catholic Bishops told CNSNews.com that anyone who had spoken to the bishops about the legislation should know that it does fund abortion and that the bishops oppose the bill.

Dishonesty, thy name is Nancy.

Who is she trying to impress? The folks back home? I doubt that pleasing Catholics is high on the San Francisco agenda. I can only guess that she’s hoping to limit Catholic voter defections in November – as the Church has gotten ever more forthright on the moral duties of politicians who claim to be Catholic, it has become ever harder for such politicians to try and split the moral difference. The days of Ted Kennedy getting away with it for decades are over.

In addition to that, I do wonder why liberals are so determined to insert at least some sort of abortion funding in to ObamaCare? Is the bill not quite unpopular enough? I know the abortion industry lavishes money on the Democrats, but is pleasing them worth angering political moderates who are opposed to federal funding for abortion?

Or, is it that they are just insane? So convinced that they deserve their power and can’t lose it that they just don’t care? I guess time will tell on that.

He’s keeping his gavel:

When campaigning in 2006, Nancy Pelosi said that a vote for Democratic control of Congress would bring the “most ethical Congress ever.” Now that one of their leadership has been caught violating ethics rules about accepting travel from lobbyists — precisely the kind of scandal Pelosi exploited in 2006 in the Jack Abramoff debacle — what does she plan to do about it? Er … nothing:

The House ethics committee decision to admonish Rangel for taking two corporate-sponsored trips to the Caribbean has turned up the heat on the powerful Ways and Means Committee chairman — with even House Speaker Nancy Pelosi saying that Rangel’s actions don’t pass the “smell test.”…

…But the speaker also said that Rangel’s participation in the corporate-sponsored trips wasn’t something that had “jeopardized our country in any way,” and she made it clear that she has no intention of taking away Rangel’s chairmanship…

Because Nancy Pelosi rose to power by being corrupt. Because Rangel simply will not be punished by his constituents – and, ultimately, because liberals do not hold their own to account. As Matt and I pointed out in Caucus of Corruption, the only thing which makes Democrats move against one of their own is if there is a risk of electoral loss. Absent that, and Democrats will stand by their corrupt members.

And the rank and file will never abandon their liberal leaders – because they do as they’re told. Servile in mind and spirit and lacking skill in independent thinking, liberals just swallow whatever feces their bosses shove at them.

We will put an end to this – Rangel can keep his dirty mitts on that gavel, for now. But the day of reckoning is coming.

Pelosi to House Dems: “I’m in a safe seat and my pollsters are still telling me that there will be a Democrat majority after November – so the rest of you wavering Democrats darn well better vote for ObamaCare“.

Feingold in trouble?

Obama Greece-ing the skids to our own financial collapse.

Illegal funding of Planned Parenthood by the Colorado government – because, for liberals, abortion is more important than the law.

Take that, Tojo!

Farrakhan rambles on like a nut, but even more so than usual.

Latest entry in the Death of Civilization Watch: group nude photo of 5,200 people.

Mike Shedlock breaks it down in data of a lot of states – a sample:

Texas

Texas Sales Tax Collections

January 2010 State Sales Tax Collections To General Revenue

State sales tax net collections deposited to general revenue totaled $1,655.3 million in January 2010. Compared with the $1,928.3 million collected in January 2009, this represents a decrease of 14.2 percent.

December 2009 State Sales Tax Collections To General Revenue

State sales tax net collections deposited to general revenue totaled $1,653.1 million in December 2009. Compared with the $1,869.4 million collected in December 2008, this represents a decrease of 11.6 percent.

November 2009 State Sales Tax Collections To General Revenue

State sales tax net collections deposited to general revenue totaled $1,696.9 million in November 2009. Compared with the $1,983.1 million collected in November 2008, this represents a decrease of 14.4 percent.

Down, down, down they go – and Texas, keep in mind, is actually one of our healthier States. Out here in Nevada, we’ve had double-digit declines in sales tax revenue for months on end. Thus we have a nearly $900 million dollar budget shortfall our pinheads in Carson City are currently trying to deal with (for what I think of their efforts, go here).

In the linked article, you’ll find that there are some government statistics allegedly showing a rise in retail sales. This is because of things like the government counting same-store sales year over year…but if a company closes out half its stores, the closed half aren’t counted and given the lower number of stores, it is natural that the survivors would show an increase, even though total sales are down. It should also be noted that even the current figures for sales tax receipts are inflated because a lot of States and localities jacked up sales tax rates in 2009 – including out here in Nevada, going along with that bit of brilliant liberal economics which says the thing to do in a down economy is tax it more.

Other than government spending, there is nothing increasing in our economy. In spite of liberal fairy tales to the contrary, the spending FDR did in the 1930’s did not cure the Depression and, actually, made it longer and deeper. We’re trying to borrow, print and spend our way out of this when the only way to get out is to work our way out – we’re repeating the mistakes of the past, and we’re going to reap the same reward.

Smoke and mirrors, boys and girls, that is all we’ve got in the economy.

Because its becoming a nightmare for the Democrats:

Kent Hancock can’t remember tougher economic times in the two decades he’s sold used cars in California’s Central Valley.

He brings home less than half the money he cleared a few years ago and has dipped into savings to keep his business open. Hancock, 41, blames politicians for doing too little to get the economy back on track and hopes they are “sweating it a little bit. They should. It shouldn’t be a guaranteed job.”

Hancock’s frustration is evident throughout the nation’s most populous state. Just a year ago, the Democratic Party looked at California as a base for adding to its majorities in Congress. Now, it could be a the place where it loses them.

Even Democratic Sen. Barbara Boxer, widely viewed just six weeks ago as a shoo-in for re-election to a fourth term, now faces the toughest race in her 28 years representing California in Congress…

…Republicans…have expanded their takeover list.

Rep. Kevin McCarthy, who’s recruiting Republicans to challenge incumbent California Democrats, said he has no worries that the GOP will lose any of the House seats it now holds in the state. Democrats, he said, will have to focus on keeping seats in perennially competitive districts in other states.

“They have too many of their own members playing defense and needing money,” McCarthy said.

Democrats were, of course, working from the assumption that their wins in 2006 and 2008 were a positive vote in favor of Democrat policies. The truth is they were a negative vote against President Bush and, far more importantly, against business as usual in Washington. Now that Bush is gone, the only thing people have to vote against is business as usual – Democrats had about a 6 month window of opportunity in 2009 to show they were going to change things.

They didn’t. All they did was show that they are even worse than the Republicans who were rejected. It is not now a matter of can the Democrats win in 2010, but whether or not they can limit their losses to something manageable – limit them to keeping a narrow Congressional majority, that is. It is getting ever more questionable that they’ll be able to do this in the House, and there are starting to be some road maps to a GOP Senate majority, though that is still a 10-1 against prospect (much better than the 1000-1 prospect it was even 6 months ago).

As I said, 2010 is all about The People vs The Powerful – or, to use Senator Brown’s better formulation, The People vs The Machine. Anyone who can cast themselves as the agent of reform in 2010 will win unless running against the most entrenched liberals in the most overwhelmingly liberal districts in the nation – the vote for the PATRIOT Act reauthorization told the tale on how many such there are: less than 100 votes against.

2010 is getting to be very fun…

They don’t care, as long as they stay rich:

A secretive group of Wall Street hedge fund bosses are said to be behind a plot to cash in on the decline of the euro.

Representatives of George Soros’s investment business were among an all-star line up of Wall Street investors at an ‘ideas dinner’ at a private townhouse in Manhattan, according to reports.

A spokesman for Soros Fund Management said the legendary investor did not attend the dinner on February 8, but did not deny that his firm was represented.

At the dinner, the speculators are said to have argued that the euro is likely to plunge in value to parity with the dollar.

He’s your hero, liberals. He’s been the moneybags behind all sorts of liberal activism for years now. He’s oh, so caring and wonderful and he just wants to save the world…and now he’s about to prey upon the wealth of the common man. Because he can. Because he can make a killing. Because all of his actions are based upon the need to keep George Soros on top.

The real reason he opposed President Bush? Bush was unlikely to allow a greedy man like Soros to rake it in hand over fist – rational economic policies tend to stymie the desires of people like Soros. And so he gins up this liberal opposition and manages, in the end, to get a guy in the White House who allows the Banksters to run wild…and you liberals bought it. Hook, line and sinker.

Now, why did you buy it? Because he was saying the words you liked to hear. You didn’t analyze anything. You didn’t think about just why someone like Soros – a convicted felon who had been greedily wrecking things for years to enrich himself – would want to back your side. He just had to say those magical words – those liberal talking points – and cut the checks, and you were enthralled. It is high time you on the left stopped asserting you’re the thinkers of the world and actually start thinking.

You helped elevate this man – now, help us bring him down, and all those like him. You have your chance in November – your votes can help us take our country back, or you can continue to slavishly follow your liberal leaders.

At part of the liberal coalition – this from Rocket Shoes regarding the refusal of the vastly overpaid union workers in the San Francisco public transit system to agree to some givebacks during the financial crisis:

Dear SF Muni,

(Expletive Delted) you.

Let me start over.

(Expletive Deleted) you.

You are the public transportation system. Say that out loud. You are, supposedly, the way I should transport myself. You know, to places like “everywhere” and “anywhere”. So let me just say I’m a little bit confused…

…I’m done with your lies.

You show up late. When you do show up, you’re a total (expletive deleted). Your driver acts like it’s a serious inconvenience that I’ve burdened him with the “driving people around in a bus” part of his “driving people around in a bus” … job. I mean, I wouldn’t take a job at the ice cream store and sigh when people asked for a (expletive deleted) sugar cone. Also, I would like to figure out where you are training your drivers. Have they used brakes on a bicycle before? Same theory. Just ease up a bit. If you push it lightly, the brakes are going to work. There’s no need to play the “can I catapult Drew into the awkward guy who’s mouth breathing in sweat pants” game. That was fun when you were on time. Hell, at the beginning of the relationship? It was one of those weird reasons I liked you: it was kind of cute in some effed up way.

It now costs me two dollars to be late to everything. Which seems like a really (expletive deleted) deal. When did you become the cable guy, telling me vaguely that you’d be over at my place sometime between the morning and roughly any time ever, including never?…

Now we’ll have to see if this guy puts two and two together and figures out that the problem is that its a government-run transportation system. A private bus system would cost less and get you there on time – because if they didn’t, some competition would come along and scoop up the customers. Of course, that would involve all sorts of freedom and individual choice, which is not really wanted in San Francisco outside of whom to have sex with, and what gender to be.

But I point this out because its yet another sign that the fury is growing out there – and its growing against government, even if its not articulated exactly that way. Everyone is mad at government and quasi-government entities raking in the taxpayer’s money and providing bad or non-existent service…meanwhile, the well-connected make out like bandits (which is, in a way, an insult to bandits – at least they put themselves at personal risk for what they steal).

2010 is all about fighting against the machine of politics – that machine which has wrecked the country and needs to be brought to heel by the people. This will, by default, work to the GOP’s advantage in November – but the warning is there: if the GOP doesn’t serve the people – and the people see and feel that the GOP is serving the people – then we’ll just repeat this all over again in 2012; and keep repeating it until we do get a government of, by and for the people.

Over the massive commercial real estate bust:

…Unlike the largest banks, such as Citigroup and Wachovia, that got into so much trouble early on, the community banks in general fared better in the residential mortgage crisis. But their turn is coming: Not only did community banks issue a higher proportion of commercial loans, but they also have held on to them rather than sell them to other investors.

Nearly 3,000 community banks — 40 percent of the banking system — have a high proportion of commercial real estate loans relative to their capital, said Warren, whose committee issued a report on commercial real estate last week. “Every dollar they lose in commercial real estate is a dollar they can’t use for small businesses,” she said. Individuals — who saw their home values drop in the residential mortgage crisis — would not feel that kind of loss, but, Warren said, a large-scale failure would “throw sand into the gears of economic recovery.”…

…Nationwide, at least $1.4 trillion in commercial real estate debt is expected to roll over during the next three years. Warren said that half of commercial real estate mortgages will be underwater by the beginning of 2011. A fifth of residential mortgages are underwater now, she said.

Unlike residential mortgages, which often can be paid over 30 years, commercial real estate mortgages typically must be paid off or refinanced within five years. Commercial properties mortgaged in 2005, 2006 and 2007, at the height of the boom, are reaching their maturity date. “Do the math on this,” Warren said. “This is a significant problem.”

Yeah, no kidding. Only a rapid and sustained turn around in the US economy can soften the blow. Keep that in mind – the crash cannot be avoided. It can merely be very bad, or it can be catastrophic.

In 2009, there were 140 bank failures – about 1 every 2.6 days. So far in 2010, we’re slightly slower at 1 failure every 2.7 days. Unless things start to go astoundingly well, we can expect over the next two years or so to lose at least 1,000 of the at-risk banks over a couple year period – about 1 per day, or more. Getting the picture?

Now, Obama and the Fed can try to bail out these banks – but that would take, probably, something close a trillion dollars, on top of all the money we’re already spending. Additionally, Bernanke at the Federal Reserve and Geithner have shown themselves mostly concerned with keeping the big banks afloat – and Obama simply might not see this coming. Additionally, if there was a bail out, it would just delay the inevitable.

A shake out is necessary as we are over loaded with office and strip mall space. Too much of it was built and some of it will have to come down, and a lot of banks simply will have to fail (even if Obama and Co put them on life support to make more “zombie” banks). But a recovery is possible if we put in place, very quickly, the policies needed to restore wealth creation in the United States. The bad news is that Obama and Co don’t understand the phrase “wealth creation”, let alone any of the policies which will encourage it.

Get ready for a long and bumpy economic ride.

HAT TIP: Mish’s

Another attempt to astro-turf themselves something like the TEA Party:

I’ve read the WaPo profile, looked at their website, watched the two videos below, and I still don’t quite get it. They’re claiming, essentially, to be nonpartisan and less interested in pushing particular policies than in “dialogue” and “cooperation” for their own sake. Which, given the realities in the Senate, is a very thinly veiled way of calling for fewer filibusters and more Democratic — sorry, I mean bipartisan — legislation. Here’s their statement of principles, for what it’s worth; assuming they stick around, it’ll be fun to watch how this changes once the GOP has a majority in both chambers again.

We want the political process broken down into three steps:

1) open and respectful dialogue

2) thoughtful and informed deliberation

3) competent and decisive execution.

Yeah, that’ll all be in the trash can the minute the Democrats lose their majority – then it will be a time to stand firm on principle and not bargain away the core values of the Progressive movement, blah, blah, blah…

I kind of feel sorry for them – they just don’t know how to gin up a popular movement. Doing such requires courage, a willingness to sacrifice one’s self, critical thinking capacity, a rational world view…that sort of thing. They’ve got their orders and if they are given enough cash and SEIU manpower, they’ll make splash…but they still won’t be the people telling government what to do. All they’ll be is yet another adjunct of the DNC and the Powers That Be.

Its a bit shameful that some of my fellow Americans have become that servile. Will you people please wake up? Snap out of your stupor – you don’t have to wait for your thoughts to come in an e mail from Media Matters or MoveOn! You can think, if you but try…

Just terrible news:

Early details coming in, some say it’s 8.5, others say it’s 8.3. [Update as of midnight Pacific time, now apparently mag. 8.8] Either way, that’s potentially devastating:

SANTIAGO, Chile (Reuters) – A massive magnitude-8.3 earthquake struck near Concepcion, Chile early on Saturday, USGS reported, shaking buildings and causing blackouts in parts of the capital of Santiago.

A Reuters witness reported shaking buildings and loss of electricity in Santiago.

Reuters is also reporting a “Tsunami warning in effect for Chile and Peru, Tsunami watch for Ecuador”, according to the MSNBC-affiliated Breaking News on Twitter.

Nothing we can do except pray, wait for details and gear up for relief efforts.

According to USGS, it struck offshore near Maule, Chile – a province with a population of a bit more than 900,000. The good news is that the depth of the quake was nearly 22 miles down (contrast to the recent Haiti quake of 5 miles down); the bad news is that the Haiti quake was 7.0 – meaning, I think, that this quake would be something like nearly 20 times more powerful. An 8.8 is rated as a quake which can cause serious damage across hundreds of miles.

UPDATE: Tsunami set to hit Hawaii about 4:19 pm Eastern, a little more than an hour from now. This is quite distant, and it may end up being nothing much, but maybe otherwise.