Scott Brown (R-MA) May Help Kill Finance Bill

From Reuters:

…”I was surprised and extremely disappointed to hear that $18 billion in new assessments and fees were added in the wee hours of the morning by the conference committee,” Massachusetts Senator Scott Brown said.

He issued the statement after negotiators from the Senate and House of Representatives emerged from a marathon session early Friday morning with a final compromise on a bill that would bring about the most sweeping financial rules revamp since the 1930s…

As usual, grafting Democrat politicians have slipped things in to the bill in the dead of night, planning on ripping us off on the sly. Its just the way they operate – when you’re dishonest enough to create the financial crisis and then claim you can fix it, this is par for the course.

We’ll see if Brown stands firm and whether the rest of the Senate GOP can muster the courage to block this boondoggle of government waste which won’t do anything to fix the problem, but will open up vast, new areas of Democrat corruption, if passed.

UPDATE: Senator Byrd’s illness (which I bet is life threatening, or they wouldn’t be announcing it) could also kill the bill. Amazing that America’s policy may depend on the fate of a man elected to the Senate 6 years before I was born. Term limits are a necessity.

Obamunism! Coal Industry Jobs Lost Because of Obama Policy

Heck with a bunch of working people, we’ve got an environmentalist ideology to advance – from JS Online:

Up to 1,000 jobs at Bucyrus International Inc. and its suppliers could be in jeopardy as the result of a decision by the U.S. Export-Import Bank, funded by Congress, to deny several hundred million dollars in loan guarantees to a coal-fired power plant and mine in India…

…The fossil fuel project was the first to come before the government-run bank since it adopted a climate-change policy to settle a lawsuit and to meet Obama administration directives.(emphasis added)

But we’ll get those back in green jobs. Some where. Some day. As soon as we get the dratted windmills to work properly…and their turbines delivered from China.

India wants the products; an American company is able to provide the products. Now, the US government has effectively killed US participation because of a quite mindless devotion to programs designed to thwart an imaginary threat of global warming. You think that plant won’t get built? If you do, then you are quite simply an idiot – someone will step it. Our jobs will be taken by some other nation not quite as hamstrung as we are.

Completely stupid – and liberalism in a nut shell.

The Chicago Way–Obama's Thuggery Exposed

J. Christian Adams, up until just recently a Department of Justice attorney, has blown the whistle on the Obama Justice Department with regard to their willful ignorance on the New Black Panther Party voter intimidation case

The New Black Panther case was the simplest and most obvious violation of federal law I saw in my Justice Department career. Because of the corrupt nature of the dismissal, statements falsely characterizing the case and, most of all, indefensible orders for the career attorneys not to comply with lawful subpoenas investigating the dismissal, this month I resigned my position as a Department of Justice (DOJ) attorney.

Read the whole thing

This is illustrative of the Obama administration’s willful ignorance and total disregard for the rule of law. The Obama administration has put its imprimatur on voter intimidation, especially if it enhances his agenda and cements his power.

Expect more of this come November and expect more intimidation of voters and of citizens in general until the day that this thug regime is removed from power.

At the same time, expect a push-back from Americans who will not allow themselves to be subjected to these fascist, jack-booted tactics from a megalomaniacal regime whose aim is to not govern but to subjugate.

There is no American who should stand for this, and any move to excuse this flagrant abuse of power by any Obama apologist (or anyone else) should be presumed as coming from one who is, like Barack Hussein Obama, an enemy of liberty.

New Rules of Engagement for Afghanistan?

Seems that “courageous restraint” might not stick around quite as-is – from the Telegraph:

“There will be no change in overall policy but all aspects of tactics and implementation will be looked at afresh,” a Pentagon official told The Daily Telegraph. “The issue of ‘courageous restraint’ is a controversial one on the ground and there may be ways it can be modified.”

War is a brutal business and can’t be made otherwise – what is chivalrous in war is to not deliberately harm non-combatants. To offer mercy to the vanquished. But when someone starts shooting at you, “restraint” must be left aside and only once the shooting has stopped can restraint be exercised.

A dose of realty has been needed in Afghanistan policy, and its looks like we’re goig to get it.

Are We Heading in to a "Double Dip" Recession?

John Mauldin rates it fairly likely:

…My take is that Bush cut taxes in 2001 and again in 2003 in the face of weak economic circumstances. Unless something changes, we are going to enact the largest tax increase in US history. And that will be matched by equally large tax increases and spending cuts by state and local jurisdictions. And we are going to do it at a time when the above research suggests that growth may be in the 1% range and unemployment will still be in the 9-10% range. Extended unemployment benefits will be long gone for many people. Housing will still be in the doldrums (more on that in next week’s Outside the Box) and housing prices are likely to fall from here.

Growth in the first quarter was revised down (again!) to 2.7%, or about half that of the 4th quarter of last year. Much of what passed for growth was inventory rebuilding and stimulus. The underlying economy may be weaker than the headline number reveals. And by the 4th quarter, there is very little stimulus.

Given the above, I think we have to increase the odds of a 2011 recession to 60%, and those odds will rise and fall based on the economic performance of the next two quarters.

Personally, I don’t think we ever really left the recession – in terms of real growth absent the massive, bankrupting bit of borrow-and-spend from Obama and his Democrats, my belief is that the private economy has not stopped contracting since 2007.

There is probably no way, at this point, to stop the GDP numbers from slipping back in to recession either later this year or early next. The only thing we can do is soften the blow – and the best means of doing so is to renew the Bush tax cuts.

This is not likely to commend itself to Democrats who are salivating over the huge tax increase – they think it will provide them the revenue to allow another round of vote-buying spending initiatives. They don’t realize that any revenue gains will be swiftly offset by renewed economic decline, and thus lower revenues.

Meanwhile, the debt burden remains – public and private. And once there comes a time when the money men figure that the governments of the world can’t meet their debt obligations, then there will be a run for the financial exits. We’re in for a long, rough year, at least.

Abortuary to Cease Killing Children

The power of prayer?

A Raleigh abortuary that has seen constant prayer from pro-lifers with the popular 40 Days for Life campaign has ceased performing abortions.

The Raleigh News and Observer reported Wednesday that National Women’s Health Organization of Raleigh is, in the words of one local pro-abortion affiliate, “in transition.” The affiliate, Ann Rose, said that the last abortions would be conducted on Saturday, but she would not explain what other changes the “transition” would entail…

Did the endlessly repeated prayers work a chance in some one’s heart? We don’t know – and won’t be able to know while we live on this earth. But it is heartening to see such a miserable, anti-human place willing to change. However it was done, it was well done.

100 Americans Most Hated by the Left

Townhall has constructed the list and you can view it here in PDF. I have to say, it hurts a bit – I figure that I’m hated more than Michael Barone (#100), and who the heck has even heard of Philip Anschutz (#89)? I mean, has anyone ever advocated having Barone beaten up, or suggested that Anschutz be strung up from a lamp post with a meat hook? I might not be as famed as some, but I really do get the lefty hate-juices flowing!

I pledge this to you, my fellow Americans, I will do all I can to make the list next year!

Geithner Surrenders

From the BBC:

US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner has told the BBC that the world “cannot depend as much on the US as it did in the past”.

He said that other major economies would have to grow more for the global economy to prosper.

Geithner, you sniveling, little coward – what you are really saying is that because your tax and spend liberalism can’t fix America, America can’t be fixed. The world can depend on America – we just can’t depend on you and your boss.

Just another example of the spinelessness of liberals – and their willingness to consign average Americans to destruction, as long at rich, powerful liberals can remain rich and powerful. Geithner doesn’t care – he’s got his pile of money and once he’s out of DC, he fully expects to be re-hired in the corporate world where he can pile up even more money – and then cheat on his taxes some more, because taxes are for the little people to pay.

Have you had enough of these weak, worthless liberals?