I feel better now:

"There are a lot of people out there who are desperate. There's a lot of desperation out there. Today I want them and the people like them across this country to know that I have not forgotten them."

--the Almighty ObaMessiah

EMINENTLY QUALIFIED

Prosecutors have asked a Federal judge to send Marion Barry, the former mayor of Washington, DC, to jail for failing to file tax returns for the eighth time in nine years. ... So for Barry, it's either jail or a cabinet position in the Obama administration. Either one.

-- Jay Leno

ON SPENDING

"Even if the Republicans were the worst hypocrites in the history of the universe, would that make it any more prudent for President Obama to embark on a mission to trump them? Indeed, that he is citing GOP fiscal profligacy as an excuse and license for more just confirms that debt is not on his mind; government debt is never on a liberal's mind except as a tactic to win arguments or elections."

--columnist David Limbaugh

ON THE ECONOMY

"The idea that even the brightest person or group of bright people, much less the U.S. Congress, can wisely manage an economy has to be the height of arrogance and conceit. Why? It is impossible for anyone to possess the knowledge that would be necessary for such an undertaking."

--economist Walter E. Williams

INSIGHT

"The real destroyer of the liberties of the people is he who spreads among them bounties, donations and benefits." --Roman historian Plutarch (c.45-125 A.D.)

"There's nothing so useless as doing efficiently that which should not be done at all." --Austrian-American writer Peter Drucker (1909-2005)

"The height of statesmanship is to come home with a dam, even if you have nowhere to put it." --humorist Will Rogers (1879-1935)

HURRY UP BEFORE THE CRISIS FIXES ITSELF

"There is far more to fear from this administration than its amateurism in governing. The urgency with which it has rushed through a monumental spending bill, whose actual spending will not be completed even after 2010, ought to set off alarm bells among those who are not in thrall to the euphoria of Obama's presidency. The urgency was real, even if the reason given was phony. President Obama's chief of staff, Rahm Emanuel, let slip a valuable clue when he said that a crisis should not go to waste, that a crisis is an opportunity to do things that you could not do otherwise. Think about the utter cynicism of that. During a crisis, a panicked public will let you get away with things you couldn't get away with otherwise. A corollary of that is that you had better act quickly while the crisis is at hand, without Congressional hearings or public debates about what you are doing. Above all, you must act before the economy begins to recover on its own. The party line is that the market has failed so disastrously that only the government can save us. It is proclaimed in Washington and echoed in the media. The last thing the administration can risk is delay that could allow the market to begin recovering on its own. That would undermine, if not destroy, a golden opportunity to restructure the American economy in ways that would allow politicians to micro-manage other sectors of the economy the way they have micro-managed the housing market into disaster."

--Hoover Institution economist Thomas Sowell

THE MAGIC OF A FREE MARKET, IN A NUTSHELL

"[N]ot all jobs are created equal. Valuable jobs provide products and services the free market supports; useless jobs provide products and services the free market would not support. Valuable jobs provide products and services that enrich quality of life, making it cheaper to live better; useless jobs provide products and services that have minor impact on quality of life. Here's the magic of private sector jobs. Imagine Bill owns a fruit stand. He sells his fruit for $2 per pound. Herman sees that Bill is doing well, and decides to open a fruit stand of his own. He figures he can undercut Bill and live on less of a profit margin, so he sells his fruit at $1 per pound. Pretty soon, Herman runs Bill out of business. It's tough for Bill. But meanwhile, customers are spending $1 less for their fruit than they were. They're spending that extra money at Bob's clothing store, keeping Bob employed -- and Bob can now hire Bill. The bottom line is this: The power of free enterprise creates competition that raises production, lowers prices, and makes lives better for consumers and producers. And that's true even if employment declines in the fruit stand business."

--columnist Ben Shapiro

CREATING INFLATION

"Government has only two ways of getting money other than raising taxes. It can go into the money market and borrow, competing with its own citizens and driving up interest rates, which it has done, or it can print money, and it's done that. Both methods are inflationary."

--Ronald Reagan

HELP THYSELF

"You cannot bring about prosperity by discouraging thrift. You cannot help small men by tearing down big men. You cannot strengthen the weak by weakening the strong. You cannot lift the wage-earner by pulling down the wage-payer. You cannot help the poor man by destroying the rich. You cannot keep out of trouble by spending more than your income. You cannot further the brotherhood of man by inciting class hatred. You cannot establish security on borrowed money. You cannot build character and courage by taking away men's initiative and independence. You cannot help men permanently by doing for them what they could and should do for themselves."

--Presbyterian minister William J.H. Boetcker (1873-1962)

HUMOR

Jay Leno:

There's talk President Barack Obama wants to lift trade restrictions with Cuba, which is great news for anybody here looking to buy a '58 Buick.

*********

Astronomers say they have discovered enormous black holes five billion light years from Earth that is sucking up everything in their path. They name the black holes "AIG-1" and "AIG-2."

Obama's historic presidency

"President Obama defended his plan for higher taxes on the rich. He is determined to level out the distribution of wealth in America. It wasn't historic enough for him to be our first black president, he also wants to be our first red one."

--comedian Argus Hamilton

ON RAISING TAXES

"Obama brags -- albeit dishonestly -- that he's only raising taxes on rich people. Ninety-five percent of the American people will get a tax cut, the president insists. Well, which is it? Do the times demand shared sacrifice from us all, or from just 5 percent of Americans? If I say to 10 co-workers, 'We all need to chip in together to get this done,' and then say, 'So, Todd, open your wallet and give five bucks to everyone else in the room,' it would sound ridiculous. But when Obama says the same thing to 300 million Americans it's called 'leadership.'"

--columnist Jonah Goldberg

Do you want Obama to fail? Let's not stop there:

"[M]any of us are hoping that all those in power fail, because those in power have a grating habit of being annoyingly self-righteous, hopelessly corrupt, resolutely incompetent and completely apathetic about the freedoms that they have sworn to protect. Embrace the failure. It's patriotic."

--columnist David Harsanyi

ABOUT GOVERNMENT RUN HEALTH CARE

"What's a life worth? Apparently not much in Great Britain. The National Institute for Health and Clinical Excellence, the government agency that decides which treatments the National Health Service will pay for, has effectively banned Lapatinib, a drug that was shown to slow the progression of breast cancer, and Sutent, which is the only medicine that can prolong the lives of some stomach cancer patients. Banning beneficial drugs due to cost is nothing new in Britain. NICE, which has to be one of history's most ironic acronyms, forbade the use of Tarceva, a lung cancer drug proven to extend patients' lives, and Abatacept, even though it's one of the only drugs that has been shown in clinical testing to improve severe rheumatoid arthritis. Once again, we have to ask: Do we really want to use the British system as the model for a U.S. health care regime? Promises of an effective, cost-effective health care system operated by the federal government are cruel fabrications. The British system shows that the state makes a mess of health care. So does the Canadian plan, which is plagued with unhealthy and often deadly waiting times for treatment. The Swedish government system is no better. It also refuses to provide some expensive medication and, inhumanely, refuses to let patients buy the drugs themselves. Why? According to a Journal of American Physicians and Surgeons article, bureaucrats believe doing so 'would set a bad precedent and lead to unequal access to medicine.' Like Canadians, Swedes are subjected to long waits. They also have denial-of-care problems that sometimes lead to death. A reasonable person would see the record of repeated failures in government-run medicine as evidence that such a system is not sustainable. Yet every central planner thinks he or she -- or his or her immediate group -- is smart enough to correct the flaws of socialist programs and therefore has the moral authority to force others to participate in his experiments. It is the same thinking that will move a person to say we are the ones we've been waiting for."

--Investor's Business Daily

"The great advances of civilization, whether in architecture or painting, in science or in literature, in industry or agriculture, have never come from centralized government."

--economist Milton Friedman (1912-2006)

"Obama is a great pretender. He repeatedly says he's doing things that he isn't, trusting his powerful rhetoric to obscure the difference."

--Washington Post editor Robert Samuelson

"If you compare the vision of our nation's founders to the behavior of today's Congress, White House and U.S. Supreme Court, you would have to conclude that there is no longer rule of law where there is a set of general rules applicable to all persons. Today, we are commanded by legislative thugs who, with Supreme Court sanction, issue orders commanding particular people to do particular things. Most Americans neither understand nor appreciate the spirit and letter of the Constitution and accept Congress' arbitrary orders and privileges based upon status."

--economist Walter E. Williams

"With respect to the two words 'general welfare,' I have always regarded them as qualified by the detail of powers connected with them. To take them in a literal and unlimited sense would be a metamorphosis of the Constitution into a character which there is a host of proofs was not contemplated by its creators."

 --James Madison

Oliver North : Failing the Test

WASHINGTON -- "Can we all get along? … Let's try to work it out." That was Rodney King's plaintive plea in May 1992, after his highly controversial confrontation with the Los Angeles Police Department led to arson and anarchy. Now, 17 years later, the Obama administration apparently has made "get along" its response to every national security test. So far, it has been the wrong answer.

Since Mr. Obama's announced his deadline for pulling U.S. combat troops out of Iraq, there has been a spike in violence in the Land Between the Rivers. His decision to "open a direct dialogue" with the theocrats ruling in Tehran has yielded thus far an Iranian satellite launch -- using North Korean ICBM technology -- a check ride on Iran's Russian-built Bushehr nuclear plant, and, just in case we didn't get the message, rejected visa applications for the U.S. women's badminton team.

"Nice guy" diplomacy hasn't worked very well elsewhere, either. Pakistan replied to the administration's "let's get along" overture by allowing......

Obama's Poll Numbers Are Falling to Earth

The president's approval rating is below George W. Bush's in the same period of 2001.

By DOUGLAS E. SCHOEN and SCOTT RASMUSSEN
WSJ.com

It is simply wrong for commentators to continue to focus on President Barack Obama's high levels of popularity, and to conclude that these are indicative of high levels of public confidence in the work of his administration. Indeed, a detailed look at recent survey data shows that the opposite is most likely true. The American people are coming to express increasingly significant doubts about his initiatives, and most likely support a different agenda and different policies from those that the Obama administration has advanced.

Polling data show that Mr. Obama's approval rating is dropping and is below where George W. Bush was in an analogous period in 2001. Rasmussen Reports data shows that Mr. Obama's net presidential approval rating -- which is calculated by subtracting the number who strongly disapprove from the number who strongly approve -- is just six, his lowest rating to date.

A detailed examination of presidential popularity after 50 days on the job similarly demonstrates a substantial drop in presidential approval relative to other elected presidents in the 20th and 21st centuries. (More)

Climate change this week: No debate
From The Patriot Post

Al Gore was scheduled to appear at The Wall Street Journal's ECO:nomics conference in California this week along with Czech President Vaclav Klaus, a global warming skeptic. But Gore chickened out, changing his scheduled appearance to the previous day so as to avoid debate. Apparently, Gore knows when he's outmatched. During a question and answer session, Gore also evaded debate on the subject, telling Danish eco-critic Bjorn Lomborg, who asked for a debate, "The scientific community has gone through this chapter and verse," he lectured. "We have long since passed the time when we should pretend this is a 'on the one hand, on the other hand' issue. It's not a matter of theory or conjecture, for goodness sake." Indeed, it's a matter of Gore making a whole lot of money roaming the globe and stoking fear about climate change. He wouldn't want a debate to interrupt the cash flow. Or perhaps he knows he would blow off more than his allotment of hot air in a cap-and-trade steam.

Is Obama a socialist?

The New York Times finds out
By Mark Alexander

If at first you don't succeed, try, try again. Barack Obama took that adage to heart when he dialed up The New York Times to clarify his answer to an earlier question posed by their reporter about whether the president is a socialist. We here know the correct answer is "yes," but Obama decided to dance around the issue.

We might note that Obama without a teleprompter is like a fish out of water. He began, "See, uhhh, I -- I -- eh -- Just one thing that, uhh, I was thinking about as I was, uhh, -- as I was -- getting off the, uhhh, copter 'cause, I -- uhhh -- you know, it was hard for me to believe you were entirely serious about that socialist question." (Hat tip to Rush Limbaugh's team for the painful transcript.)

Obama continued, "Uh, and so I think that, uh, it's important just to note, uhh, when you start, uhh, hearing folks, uhh, throw these words around, thaaat, um, uh, we've actually been operating, uh, in a way that, uh, is entirely consistent with free market principles, uh, and that, uhhh, uh, some of the same folks who are uh, throwing the word 'socialist' around can't say the same." And he wasn't done yet: "I -- I -- I -- I just think it's c-clear that by the time we had, uhhhhh. By the time we, eh, uh, got here, uhhh, ummm, there already had been, uh, an enormous infusion of taxpayer money into the financial system, aaand, eh, eh, eh, y-y-yuh-y-y-yuh.... The thing I constantly try to emphasize to people is that, if coming in the market was doing fine, nobody would be happier than me, uh, to stay out of it. Uh, you know, I -- I -- I have more than enough to do, uh, without having to worry about the financial system. Uh, and the fact that, uh, we've had to take these extraordinary measures, uh, and intervene, uh, is, uhh, not an indication of my ideological preferences."

While Obama does have a point about some of the fiscally irresponsible policies enacted by the Bush administration, the truth is that Obama didn't rise to oppose them, either in Congress or on the campaign trail, for being too big, but rather that they were not big enough.

Instead of coming up with a new plan of attack after seeing the failure of last spring's stimulus checks, the TARP money and all the other bailouts, it appears that the only idea President Obama and his economic Keystone Kops have is to throw good yet-to-be-printed money after bad existing debt.

Let's Cut Through The Crap
HeavyHanded would like to add that after Obama won the November election, he asked and pushed for a stimulus bill to be passed so that he could "hit the ground running."

Later, after the first half of the TARP money was spent and before he took office, he asked then President Bush to hold off on the second half of the TARP spending bill so he could use it as he saw fit when he took office. So let's cut through the crap. A little honesty would be appreciated.

"Children should be educated and instructed in the principles of freedom. ... If we suffer [the minds of young people] to grovel and creep in infancy, they will grovel all their lives. ... The foundation of national morality must be laid in private families... How is it possible that Children can have any just Sense of the sacred Obligations of Morality or Religion if, from their earliest Infancy, they learn their Mothers live in habitual Infidelity to their fathers, and their fathers in as constant Infidelity to their Mothers? ... We have no government armed with power capable of contending with human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Avarice, ambition, revenge, or gallantry, would break the strongest cords of our Constitution as a whale goes through a net. Our Constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate to the government of any other. ... The only foundation of a free Constitution, is pure Virtue, and if this cannot be inspired into our People ... they may change their Rulers, and the forms of Government, but they will not obtain a lasting Liberty. ... A Constitution of Government once changed from Freedom, can never be restored. Liberty, once lost, is lost forever."

-- John Adams

Top 10 Senate RINOs

by Human Events


As part of HUMAN EVENTS ongoing campaign against Republicans in name only (RINOs) we have compiled a list of the Top 10 Most Liberal Republican Senators based on the American Conservative Union Ratings for 2008 (110th Congress, second session. The ratings all compare rather unfavorably with that of Sen. Jim DeMint (R-SC), chairman of the Repubican Steering Committee. Sen. DeMint’s score was a perfect 100)

On the conservative scale, the ten lowest-scoring senators are:

1. Olympia Snowe, Maine: (ACU Rating: 12)

(Only one point higher than liberal Democrat Hillary Clinton who the ACU scored an 11, and an astonishing 4 points lower than Senate Majority Leader, Harry Reid’s 16.)

2. Susan Collins, Maine: 20
(Collins received the same score as liberal Claire McCaskill, and 4 points lower than Russ Feingold’s 24)

3. Arlen Specter, PA: 42 (Only 10 points higher than Mary Landrieu’s 32)

4. George Voinovich, OH: 52

5. Lisa Murkowski, AL: 58

6. Mel Martinez, FL: 60

7. John McCain, AZ: 63

8. Richard Lugar, Ind: 63

9. Robert Bennett, UT: 64

10. Thad Cochran, Miss: 68

Obama Fiddles While Wall Street Burns - HUMAN EVENTS

by Jed Babbin


Barack Obama has been president for only seven weeks. The sub-prime mortgage crisis had been building for years before his inauguration. George Bush began the nationalization of our banking sector with the failed “TARP” plan. Congressional overspending has been a continuous problem since before World War 2. So how soon can we reasonably begin to hold Obama responsible for the accelerating economic decline?

The answer is that we have to hold Obama accountable now in proportion to his.............

Broken Earmark Promises - HUMAN EVENTS

by Michelle Oddis


Wednesday -- behind closed doors -- President Barack Obama signed his 2009 Omnibus spending package, calling it an “imperfect” bill. With 8,570 disclosed earmarks worth $7.7 billion “imperfect” is an understatement.

It’s bad enough that our president was in an irresponsible rush to spend hundreds of billions with his “stimulus” package ($787 billion), and soon $350 million in the second half of the TARP funds, $32 billion -- at least -- for his new SCHIP program, and now $410 billion in his “imperfect” omnibus bill, but on top of that, he’s been dishonest.

Just two weeks before Obama took office he told reporters that his plans would set a ......

Eight Republicans Vote for Pork-Laden Spending Bill; Three Democrats Vote No

CNSNews.com :

The Republicans who helped pass the spending bill – which is padded with pork-barrel spending -- are Sens. Richard Shelby of Alabama, Lisa Murkowski of Alaska, Olympia Snowe of Maine, Thad Cochran and Roger Wicker of Mississippi, Kit Bond of Missouri, Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania, and Lamar Alexander of Tennessee. Those Republicans all used the spending bill to bring money home to their congressional districts.

WEIRD BUT TRUE

1. Conflict Resolution Session Successful:
   "High School Student in 'Conflict Resolution' Session Stabs His Bully"
   Chicago Sun-Times
   
2. Who needs a police sketch artist?
   "Prosecutors Paint Picture of Man Shot in Front of His Dad"
   Austin American-Statesman
3. Global warming stimulates illegal immigration: "Mountains of Ice Invade Beachfront Michigan Homes" CNN.com

U.N. Secretary-General Calls U.S. a ‘Deadbeat’ Donor, Sparking Republican Complaints
(CNSNews.com) – The United States gives more financial support to the United Nations than any other country, but on Wednesday, in a closed-door meeting with the House Foreign Relations Committee, U.N. Secretary-General Ban Ki-moon called the U.S. “the biggest deadbeat” donor. One Republican at the meeting called Ban’s comments “beyond belief.”

Obama Signs Bill with 8,570 Earmarks While Calling for Earmark Reform
White House (CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama called on Congress to mend, not end, the earmark process in spending bills on Wednesday, the same day he signed a $410-billion omnibus spending package filled with 8,570 earmarks.

It's not just the economy, stupid. Obama administration already failing in foreign policy areas, too

By Jack Kelly

Americans anxiously watching their 401ks melt away may not have noticed the Obama administration is off to a rocky start in foreign policy, too.

We were told often during the campaign that Mr. Obama would repair relationships with foreign governments allegedly damaged by the "cowboy" diplomacy of George W. Bush. But in his first weeks in office, President Obama gratuitously has offended allies, and has made clumsy overtures — contemptuously rebuffed — to adversaries.

Most puzzling has been the back of the hand treatment the president has given to our closest ally.

COMMENTARY:

New battle for Britain
By Richard Rahn
Washington Times

Warning to tourists - it is now illegal to take a photo of a London bobby (policeman). The time-honored tradition of tourists having their pictures taken with London cops is being dealt a silly death blow by those who control the British nanny-state. The British are not only losing their economic prosperity, but their civil liberties as well.

Will Britain again become the "sick man of Europe"?

Londonistan Rising

Last month, the British government controversially refused entry to Geert Wilders, enforcing a ban it had placed on the Dutch parliamentarian for his anti-Islam film, Fitna. While Britain works to eliminate the “threat” from the critics of Islam, however, the British government is facing a far greater peril from the spread of radical Islam on its own territory.

The CIA reportedly has warned President Obama that Islamic extremists living in the United Kingdom are now viewed as the greatest threat to the United States. “Around 40 per cent of CIA activity on homeland threats is now in the UK. This is quite unprecedented,” one British official was quoted as saying in The Telegraph.

The Obama Rosetta Stone

By Daniel Henninger
Opinion Journal.com

Excerpt:

Barack Obama has written two famous, widely read books of autobiography -- "Dreams from My Father" and "The Audacity of Hope." Let me introduce his third, a book that will touch everyone's life: "A New Era of Responsibility: Renewing America's Promise. The President's Budget and Fiscal Preview" (Government Printing Office, 141 pages, $26; free on the Web). This is the U.S. budget for laymen, and it's a must read.

Turn immediately to page 11. There sits a chart called Figure 9. This is the Rosetta Stone to the presidential mind of Barack Obama. Memorize Figure 9, and you will never be confused. Not happy, perhaps, but not confused.

Excerpt:

Turn to page five of Mr. Obama's federal budget, and one may read these commentaries on the top 1% datum:

"While middle-class families have been playing by the rules, living up to their responsibilities as neighbors and citizens, those at the commanding heights of our economy have not."

Excerpt:

The "top 1%" isn't just going to pay for these policies. Many of them would assent to that. The rancorous language used to describe these taxpayers makes it clear that as a matter of public policy they will be made to "pay for" the fact of their wealth -- no matter how many of them worked honestly and honorably to produce it. No Democratic president in 60 years has been this explicit.

Read it all here.

The Charles Freeman fiasco shows why Obama's "spiritual mentor" mattered.

Best of the Web Today: The Wright Stuff - WSJ.com

By JAMES TARANTO

A year ago, Barack Obama was running for president and people were starting to pay attention to his "spiritual mentor," Jeremiah Wright. Obama tried to have it every way: He claimed he had no idea about Wright's crackpot ravings, which of course he did not agree with, but he proclaimed his personal loyalty to a man he portrayed as merely eccentric and avuncular. Months later, when this approach was no longer political tenable, Obama threw Wright under the bus, as the vivid campaign metaphor had it.

The Coming Local Government Credit Crunch

Federal crowd-out and inflation risk will make it hard for states and cities to borrow.

Nicole Gelinas Says Barack Obama's $3.6 Trillion Budget Could Overwhelm Credit Markets:

President Barack Obama's $3.6 trillion budget designates $36 billion for transportation infrastructure. State governors and legislatures should spend that money wisely -- and even more importantly, they should use the remaining $229 billion they're getting in stimulus money to put their fiscal houses in order. If they don't, they risk burdening their constituents with devastating taxes in the near future. Read on.

LOST on China: A bad treaty leads to a naval scrap.

The USNS Impeccable's Recent Hainan Encounter With Chinese Ships Reveal the Law of the Sea Treaty's Shortcomings

So once again we are reminded of why Ronald Reagan sank the Law of the Sea Treaty.

Thanks of a sort here go to China, which last week sent several ships to shadow and harass the USNS Impeccable, an unarmed U.S. Navy surveillance ship, as it was operating in international waters about 70 miles south of Hainan Island. The harassment culminated Sunday when the

The Union Cudgel: Big Labor gets nasty on 'card check.'

Labor Unions Turn to Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner for Pressure on 'Card Check'

Big Labor's drive to eliminate secret ballots for union elections has united American business in opposition, so labor chiefs are putting on the brass knuckles: The new strategy is to threaten companies with government retaliation if they don't stop lobbying against turning U.S. labor markets into Europe.

Freddie Reports $23.9 Billion Loss

Freddie Mac, still suffering from the lax mortgage-lending practices of the housing boom, reported a loss of $23.9 billion for the fourth quarter and said it will need a $30.8 billion injection of capital from the U.S. Treasury.

Brazil's da Silva Warns Against Protectionism

BRASILIA -- Brazilian President Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, saying a rising wave of protectionism by rich nations threatens the world's emerging economies, vowed to lobby the U.S. to adopt a free-trade deal with Colombia even though it could hurt some of his own country's exports to the U.S.  Read more at WSJ.com

U.S. Posted $192.78 Billion Total Budget Deficit in February

WASHINGTON -- The U.S. budget deficit grew in February, pushing the year-to-date shortfall past $750 billion as tax revenue fell amid the recession.

The federal government posted a budget deficit of $192.78 billion in the fifth month of fiscal 2009.

February is typically a deficit month. In February 2008, the shortfall was $175.56 billion. A survey of economists by Dow Jones Newswires forecast a deficit in February 2009 of $202.5 billion.

Read more at WSJ.com

Economic Forecasting Survey Gives Obama, Geithner Low Grades

U.S. President Barack Obama and Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner received failing grades for their efforts to revive the economy from participants in the latest Wall Street Journal forecasting survey.

Read more at WSJ.com

"If Congress can do whatever in their discretion can be done by money, and will promote the General Welfare, the Government is no longer a limited one, possessing enumerated powers, but an indefinite one, subject to particular exceptions."

--James Madison

But What If The Rich Refuse To Be Eaten?

Between bites of Kobe beef burger, President Obama has decided to eat the rich no matter the damage to the economy.

By Dan Kennedy
Business & Media Institute

Maybe nobody’s noticed – I haven’t heard any pundits mention – that Obama’s next tax scheme punishes married successful people even more than unmarried successful people.

As I understand it, Obama’s tax attack begins at $200,000 of income for an individual but only $250,000 for a married couple. So, if I earn $399,000.00 and my wife is a stay-at-home Mom, we should divorce and “live in sin,” and I should shift $199,500 of the income to her. If two people are married, each earning $150,000 ($300,000 as a couple), they should divorce and escape the new tax punishments targeted at The Rich. If they stay married, they get slaughtered. If they get single, they are spared the shearing.

This is a very interesting piece of social engineering, diametrically opposite the favor..... more

Like a Mama Bear, Networks Protect Obama from His Down Market

Stock market reports ignore president's influence or defend him against criticism, but gave credit for March 4, Election rallies.

By Julia A. Seymour
Business & Media Institute

On Election Day 2008, as people anticipated Obama’s victory, global news agency Agence France-Presse (AFP), called the biggest Election Day rally since 1984 an “Obama effect.”

Look at the market now: The Dow Jones Industrial Average fell more than 3,000 points from 9,625.3 to 6,547.05 between Election Day and March 9. From Inauguration Day to March 5, the Dow fell 20 percent – the very definition of a bear market. Although the market rallied on March 10 by nearly 400 points, credit for Obama was noticeably absent from stories that evening. [Read more]

Vitter calls pay raises 'offensive'

WASHINGTON - Automatic cost-of-living pay raises for members of Congress would be banned under a proposal from Republican Sen. David Vitter of Louisiana.

In Mexico's drug wars, fears of a U.S. front

Violence that has killed thousands is beginning to cross border, officials say

With U.S. forces fighting two wars abroad, the nation's top military officer made an important visit last week to forestall a third.

He went to Mexico. [Read more]

Will 'We Surround Them' launch revolution?

Glenn Beck warns about falling for 'Wizard of Oz lie'

Talk show dynamo Glenn Beck is warning Americans not to fall for the "Wizard of Oz lie" – the one that says just because a big government voice is large and intimidating it is right.

Remember that "once you pull the curtain away you realize that there are only a few people pressing the buttons, and their voices are weak," he writes on his website promoting Friday's "We Surround Them" special program. It airs at 5 p.m. Eastern Time on the Fox News Channel. [Read on.]

Scalia: You need 4 votes for Obama eligibility case
WorldNetDaily

Lawyer confronts justice about prez's qualifications. [Read more.]

Intel-chief pick withdraws

Freeman under fire for ties to Chinese, Saudis

JERUSALEM – President Obama's nominee for a top intelligence post withdrew his name from consideration today amid controversy concerning his associations and alleged business connections, including receiving large sums from Saudi Arabia and serving on the board of a Chinese government-owned company accused of acting against U.S. national security.
Read more.

MSNBC poll: Obama earns 'F' on performance

In survey of 70,000, respondents give president failing grade

By Chelsea Schilling

President Obama has earned a grade of "F" for his performance in office.

He received a failing mark in an MSNBC unscientific online survey after having spent less than two months in the White House. Read more here.

The latest N. Korean threats — against S. Korean airliners — are credible

WASHINGTON — North Korea may be off the United States State Department's list of nations sponsoring terrorism, but its warning to South Korea about the safety of flights through its air space has escalated fears of a surprise North Korean strike to new levels.

Inconceivable though it may......