It could work

Here's a stimulus bill I can get behind!

What the hell?

I thought the government was supposed to stay out of church business?

What's the Constitution of Connecticut say about crap like this?

acting president bambam says economy isn't as bad

ironic
adjective
1.	humorously sarcastic or mocking; "dry humor"; "an ironic remark often conveys an intended meaning obliquely"; "an ironic novel"; "an ironical smile"; "with a wry Scottish wit" [syn: dry]
2.	characterized by often poignant difference or incongruity between what is expected and what actually is; "madness, an ironic fate for such a clear thinker"; "it was ironical that the well-planned scheme failed so completely" Chinese Premier Wen Jiabao said earlier on Friday Beijing expected to see results from U.S. President Barack Obama's economic recovery plan but expressed concern that massive U.S. deficit spending and near-zero interest rates would erode the value of China's huge bond holdings.

All I heard was blah blah blah, broken promise blah blah

Obama bayonets our wounded

Remember all those (D)emocrat party lies about underfunded troops, Humvee armor... etc. etc... given the chance the (D)emocrats show how they really support the troops.

Sweetness & Light notes : Obama Wants Vets To Pay For Healthcare

So taxpayers dollars will be available for healthcare for illegal aliens and deadbeats, but not for wounded soldiers?

Van Helsing : Obama Doesn't Want to Pay for Medical Care for Wounded Vets

Veterans Affairs Secretary Eric Shinseki confirmed Tuesday that the Obama administration is considering a controversial plan to make veterans pay fortreatment of service-related injuries with private insurance.

Yes, that Shinseki, the Bush-bashing Clinton tool.

Here are just a few of Barack Hussein Obama's smears against the Military :

“We’ve got to get the job done there and that requires us to have enough troops so that we’re not just air-raiding villages and killing civilians, which is causing enormous pressure over there." -- Barack Hussein Obama Jr.(D)

At a fancy '05 Manhattan fundraiser, Obama told the approving crowd that the Bush administration was using soldiers in Iraq as "cannon fodder."

“You know, I’ve heard from an Army captain who was the head of a rifle platoon — supposed to have 39 men in a rifle platoon. Ended up being sent to Afghanistan with 24 because 15 of those soldiers had been sent to Iraq. And as a consequence, they didn’t have enough ammunition, they didn’t have enough humvees. They were actually capturing Taliban weapons, because it was easier to get Taliban weapons than it was for them to get properly equipped by our current commander in chief.” -- Barack Hussein Obama

..."oftentimes our women servicemembers are more prone to post-traumatic stress disorder partly because they — there's a sad, but real, problem of sexual harassment and sexual abuse for women veterans, and that makes them much more prone, then, to have post-traumatic stress disorder." -- Barack Hussein Obama Jr.(D)

"If you talk to commanders on the ground there, they'll tell you, 'Instead of having another platoon, I'd rather have a couple of agricultural specialists." -- Barack Hussein Obama Jr.(D) who hasn't been "on the ground there" in Afghanistan

Cross Posted at DANEgerus

Economic meltdown averted! Teleprompter Jesus claims Miracle!

The Anchoress has the best rundown on the Liberal Lord and Messiah's miracle. He's canceling a crisis that didn't exist in the first place. How many times have I said that this whole housing market downturn is a CORRECTION, not a recession?

And National Review has the down-low on the next Obama appointee.

As a third top Treasury nominee withdraws from consideration (see Mark's item, below) and Vivek Kundra, President Obama's Chief White House Information Officer, takes a leave of absence following the FBI's raid on his former office, the administration announces that attorney Tony West, who volunteered his services to represent John Walker Lindh (the so-called "American Taliban" convicted after making war against his country), is the president's choice to lead the Civil Division at the Department of Justice.

And West's wife is a former executive director of the ACLU. How many more far Left loons are going to come out of the woodwork?

The Mrs. just asked me if all of Obama's problems are normal for a President. No, they are not. Obama is far Left. Marxist far Left. And he associates with others who are as far Left as he is, which means that he rubs elbows with folks to don't give one damn about rules, ethics, laws, or morals. Leftists of Obama's type care about one thing and one thing only - power, and the attaining of. Now, when he was the junior Senator from Chicago, nobody paid much attention to him. When he was running for President, the Democrat American Communist Party Propaganda Machine, aka the Media, covered up all his unsavory connections in their quest to see him elected. But now that he's President, there's only so much damage control that they can do, and all of his unsavory connections can't stand on their own once they're in the spotlight of the national stage.

I expect that this circus will continue for quite a while. We haven't even begun to the bottom of the barrel in terms of Obama's connections.

Congress refuses to scrap automatic pay raises

Oh sure, they voted down next year's pay raise, but you can't expect them to actually do that all the time, can you?

I think Congress is actually a little scared right now, hence turning down the raise next year. But they're hoping that all of us little people will just forget about it and go away, so that they can continue getting pay raises while they destroy this country from the inside out.

Fat chance, you worthless, bloated parasites.

OBAMA LIED, THE ECONOMY DIED!

You like that? I stole it from her.

BUT ANYWAYS: Just take a look at this CNN article, which tries as hard as it can to do it's usual propaganda organ job for the Teleprompter Jesus, but can't manage to conceal the sheer amount of FAIL that is coming from the Oval Office.

The president maintained that earmarks can serve a useful purpose, but he said it is time for Congress and the White House to embrace a new set of guiding principles.

His remarks came the day after the Senate passed a $410 billion spending bill that included nearly 9,000 earmarks, which are projects designed to benefit individual legislators' districts.

The earmarks in the spending bill are worth nearly $8 billion. Many critics have deemed them as wasteful, and some observers have questioned Obama's pledge to end such spending.

Some lawmakers urged Obama to veto the bill -- saying it goes against the president's campaign pledge.

Goes against the President's campaign pledge? Really? You mean, when he was walking around talking about how he wouldn't allow any earmarks, people actually BELIEVED HIM? Wow.

Here's the deal, all you O-bots. All you members of the Obamanation. You bought it. You got suckered. You got lied to, and despite the millions of people warning you that your Liberal Lord and Messiah couldn't be trusted any further than the El could take him, you deliberately ignored every single warning and voted for the most liberal Senator in the US Congress.

Congratulations. All you mindless O-bots confirmed that style matters, and substance doesn't.

So now Teleprompter Jesus is breaking all the promises he made in order to get you to vote for him, and people are just shocked, SHOCKED that a liberal member of the Democrat American Communist Party would break their sacred vow that they made on the campaign trail.

(this is me, rolling my eyes at you)

This election helped show me that there's no real use in talking to the millions of brainless twats who voted that pompus windbag into office. I'm just stockpiling ammo, and hoping I don't have to use it. Maybe when the breakdown occurs, we can just watch all the liberals starve to death, waiting for someone else to show up and save them, while the conservatives go about living life and getting things done.

And for the record - all you Republican Stupid Party members with earmarks attached to the Spendulus Bill? Those eight Republican Supid Party members who voted FOR the Spendulus Bill? Fuck you, you spineless, gutless, RINOs. Fuck you with a barb-wire wrapped fencepost. Why don't you actually stand up and get a little spine for once, you money-grubbing fuckwits? Why don't you actually show the PRINCIPALS that the Republican Party is supposed to espouse, you fucking elitist pieces of shit? Why don't you actually try to HELP your side get re-elected, instead of rolling in the trough trying to get as much for yourself as you can like some communist shitheel Democrat?

Gah. I'm off to the shower.

cocained peppers???

In Ozone Park, Queens 3 reported shoppers bought peppers that had baggies of cocaine in them. I am linking to this video because it is good to see the public reaction to this. I would recommend seeing it.

Are we seeing the begining acts of a potential war?

Chinese naval officials say a U.S. naval ship that was involved in a standoff Sunday near China's southern coast was on a spying mission.

In an article carried Wednesday in the official China Daily newspaper, naval officials said it was clear the USNS Impeccable was not just a surveillance ship, but a spy ship.

Vice Admiral Jin Mao, the former vice-commander of China's navy told the newspaper that anyone with eyes could tell what the ship was up to.

Other naval officials noted that the Chinese navy was well within its rights to intercept the vessel. They also say the Impeccable's presence was a threat to Chinese vessels.

The U.S. government says Chinese vessels harassed the Impeccable Sunday while it was towing sonar equipment - that is designed to monitor submarines - in international waters.

The naval dispute comes as Chinese Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi is in Washington this week to meet with U.S. officials.

UN climate chief: US carbon cuts could spark 'revolution'

The head of the UN body charged with leading the fight against climate change has conceded that Barack Obama will face a "revolution" if he commits the US to the deep carbon cuts that scientists and campaigners say are needed.

Rajendra Pachauri, head of the Intergovernmental Panel on Climate Change (IPCC), said domestic political constraints made it impossible for the US president to announce ambitious short-term climate targets similar to those set by Europe. And he questioned the value of a new global climate deal without such a US pledge.

All this pressure from the U.N. is to replace the Kyoto Protocal which expires in 2012. They are also saying that Obama basically needs to baby step this process in order to not create a revolution. So keep a weathered eye on anything pertaining to the petroleum industry.

Washington State O.K.'s expanded domestic partner rights

Even though this was not allowed to go to the voters, probably due to fear it wouldn't pass, I think we need to call this a win.

1: it is not a marriage, it is a domestic partnership, so it has not changed the definition of marriage

"Same-sex couples have the right to form meaningful relationships. But I don't think they have the right to redefine marriage for all of us," said Sen. Janea Holmquist, R-Moses Lake.

2: it was done through the proper channels.

3: domestic partnerships must be registered, much like marriage, only this is the same sex version.

As of Tuesday, 5,112 domestic partnership registrations had been filed since the law took effect in July 2007

Great minds think alike

My take.

Gonzo's take.

We had a principled conservative on the last ticket and you RINO, effete, chardonnay sipping, country-club Rockefeller Republicans did your damndest to sneer all over her. She didn’t go to a fine enough school for you. You didn’t like her accent. She gave her kids “funny” names. She hunted. She got her hands dirty. She didn’t have servants, or send her kids to some boarding school, she shopped at Wal-Mart, prayed, and was pro-life - she was just “Not our kind of people” enough for you.

Guess what, dickbrain? Sarah Palin is ME. I don’t have an Ivy League degree, I have a hilljack accent, my kids are named after historical figures, I hunt, work with my hands, wouldn’t have a servant to save my life, raised my kids, worked hard to send them to Catholic school, shop at Wal-Mart, go to a “fundamentalist” Catholic church (Latin Mass), and am also pro-life. So all your looking down your nose at her, is looking down your booger-laden snoot at me, you Ivy-League turd. So if she is too rustic for you to vote for - Well, I’m too rustic to give you my vote too.

Got that, mother fuckers? Do you make the fucking connection yet? Is there a light starting to come on in that latte-addled skull of yours yet?

Is there any motherfucking doubt - after me and mine stayed home in droves in 2006 and 2008 after giving an unpopular president the biggest vote total to that date in 2004 to return him to office - that we mean exactly what the fuck we say? Are we clear as a fucking bell?

Hell, I'll jump on that bandwagon - Sarah Palin is ME. I don't have an Ivy League education, I work with my hands, I build crap, I drive a beat up truck, and I earn each and every paycheck I get. I can schmooze with the upper-crust at a party if I have to do so, but I'd much rather crack a beer and play some Texas Hold-em with the guys. I shop at where ever I can find what I want that's made somewhere other than China. I go to church as often as I can, given my work schedule. I hunt. I'm pro-life, and no, I don't think that conflicts with hunting at all, because I know that there is a huge difference between an animal and a human child.

I am the conservative base that the Republican Stupid Party has been shitting on for the past decade, and quite honestly, I'm sick of it. If the GOP can't figure out that appealing to a bunch of pansy-assed, Beltway social-club, liberal RINO's will not win any elections for them, then they deserve to die off. They've obviously forgotten who their voters actually are. I'll say it again: Most of the wounds the GOP has taken have been self inflicted.

China-US sea confrontations could continue

The U.S. accused Chinese ships of surrounding and harassing its Navy vessel in international waters, coming within 25 feet (8 meters) of the USNS Impeccable, stopping dead in front of it and strewing debris in its path. Some of the Chinese crew even stripped to their underwear after a blast by U.S. fire hoses.

"They seem to be more militarily aggressive," U.S. National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair told members of the Senate Armed Services Committee on Tuesday. "I think the debate is still on in China whether as their military power increases they will be used for good or for pushing people around."

He called Sunday's incident the most serious episode between the two nations since 2001, when a U.S. surveillance plane collided with a Chinese fighter jet near the same area.

China's Foreign Ministry said the American ship "broke international and Chinese laws in the South China Sea without China's permission."

The incident will likely be discussed when Foreign Minister Yang Jiechi visits Washington this week. The U.S. Embassy in Beijing lodged a protest with the Foreign Ministry and said the Navy mapping vessel had been conducting "routine operations ... in accordance with customary international law."

The latest confrontation between U.S. surveillance craft and Chinese coastal defenses took place in international waters in the South China Sea about 75 miles (120 kilometers) south of China's Hainan Island, the home of numerous Chinese naval installations.

Observers said Beijing appeared to be asserting its claim to refuse rights to foreign navies wanting to carry out surveillance within its 200-mile exclusive economic zone.

The zone, under international law, gives a state certain rights over the use of natural resources there. Shen Dingli, director of the Center of American Studies at Shanghai's Fudan University, said China wants to exert control in the waters beyond economic interests.

say by-bye to the change we have left

Pelosi leaves door open to second stimulus

After meeting behind closed doors with prominent economists, Pelosi said that at the moment she would adopt a wait-and-see approach to a further economic stimulus, but noted that job losses would likely increase over the coming months.

"It will take a little time to get going, some of it's already in the works, but we must give it time to work," Pelosi told reporters flanked by economists and fellow Democrats who met to discuss the struggling economy.

"You have to keep the door open to see how this goes," she said.

Pelosi: Congress Needs to 'Keep the Door Open' to Second Stimulus Package

"The word of the day is confidence. Confidence in our markets, confidence in lending, confidence in our financial institutions," Pelosi said before suggesting the need for a second rescue package during a press conference Tuesday following a meeting with top economists.

Mark Zandi, chief economist and founder of Moody's Economy, took a more definitive stance than Pelosi, telling reporters a second stimulus bill is necessary.

"We are going to need more taxpayer money ... I think another stimulus package is a reasonable assumption because of the way things are going," Zandi said.

The Obama administration has not ruled out a second stimulus package -- should the current bill prove insufficient -- but it has not indicated a second bill is currently in the making either.

White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs told reporters on Feb. 17 that Obama "is going to do what's necessary to grow this economy." While "there are no particular plans at this point for a second stimulus package," he added, "I wouldn't foreclose it."

Senate Democrats try to thwart GOP move on pay

WASHINGTON (AP) — Senate Democrats are trying to thwart Republican efforts to force a vote on congressional pay raises on a must-pass spending.

Louisiana Republican Sen. David Vitter's amendment to the stopgap legislation would ban congressional pay raises unless lawmakers vote to increase their own salaries. He argues that these automatic salary boosts are inappropriate while the nation is mired in a recession.

Lawmakers aren't arguing publicly with that reasoning. But Democrats want to bring up the proposal as a separate bill even though its prospects would be dim. Critics say that's really an effort to kill the proposal.

Many lawmakers are loathe to go on the record in favor of raising their own salaries during the economic crisis.

Copyright © 2009 The Associated Press. All rights reserved.

Madoff to plead guilty without plea

NEW YORK – Bernard Madoff will plead guilty Thursday to 11 criminal counts including money laundering, perjury and securities, mail and wire fraud and will do so without a plea deal, knowing it carries a potential prison term of 150 years, lawyers said Tuesday in court.

Lawyers outlined the plea arrangement for the 70-year-old former Nasdaq chairman that was set to unfold later this week after Madoff waived several potential conflicts of interest between Madoff and his lawyer, Ira Sorkin.

Asked by the judge if Madoff would plead guilty Thursday, Sorkin said: "I think that's a fair expectation."

bambam might be doing somethings good

But then again, what really is his angle?

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama called for tying teachers' pay to students' performance and expanding innovative charter schools Tuesday, embracing ideas that have provoked hostility from members of teachers unions. He also suggested longer school days — and years — to help America's kids compete in the world.

In his first big speech on education, Obama said the United States must drastically improve student achievement to regain lost international standing.

"The future belongs to the nation that best educates its citizens," he said. "We have everything we need to be that nation ... and yet, despite resources that are unmatched anywhere in the world, we have let our grades slip, our schools crumble, our teacher quality fall short and other nations outpace us."

His solutions include teacher pay and charter school proposals that have met resistance among members of teachers unions, which constitute an important segment of the Democratic Party.

Obama acknowledged that conflict, saying, "Too many supporters of my party have resisted the idea of rewarding excellence in teaching with extra pay, even though we know it can make a difference in the classroom."

Windows Vista is a virus

So anyways, here I am with my laptop, which is running Windows Vista. I'm not all that happy with it, but recently it's been slowing down even more than usual. So I go in, try to find out just why my computer is acting so horribly. My first thought was "Ah crap, I've got a virus". But after digging around, checking out the task manager, you want to know why my computer is so damned slow?

Because of Windows Vista. It's all Microsoft Applications. I don't have a virus. I've run a scumware check over and over with SpyBot Search and Destroy. I've scanned my computer over and over with McAfee. I have found just what is sucking up all my resources. It is Windows Vista itself. There's no virus. There's no scumware. Windows Vista IS THE SCUMWARE! My CPU is maxed out, my memory is maxed out, it takes thirty seconds to get Firefox to load, and it's all because of Windows Vista! My computer takes five or ten minutes to boot up in the morning, and it's because Windows Vista sucks so bad. Every action that occurrs on this computer is taking so long that I will literally direct my computer to do something, and then just WALK AWAY, because I know nothing will get done for ten minutes.

WINDOWS VISTA IS A VIRUS! It is SCUMWARE!

Anyone know how to get Linux up and operating on a Compaq laptop? Because I'm friggin' done. I'm so pissed off at Microshaft Winblows right now that I can't see straight. I never want to use another Microshaft product. Maybe if they start losing billions of dollars, they'll come out with an operating system that people can actually operate.

You know what it's like? It's like driving a car that has one vacuum hose loose. Yeah, the thing runs, but it doesn't run well.

Blago is desparate

CHICAGO – A federal judge has turned down a request from impeached former Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich to have Chicago's top federal prosecutor and his staff thrown off the corruption case against him.

Korean satalite or missile

This video is very interesting.

Supreme Court limits reach of Voting Rights Act

This is a step in the right direction. I'm all like tingly and stuff:)

In a 5-4 decision, the court said officials need not consider race when drawing districts for state legislatures, county boards, city councils and school districts, so long as blacks do not make up a voting majority in a particular area.

Justice Anthony M. Kennedy, speaking for the court, said the law can "hasten the waning of racism in American politics" by making race less of factor in drawing electoral districts.

In today's decision, the justices rejected a move to draw a "cross-over district" in North Carolina where an area that had a 39% black population elected a black representative to the state's General Assembly.

State lawmakers believed the Voting Rights Act required them to draw districts that would give black candidates a realistic chance of winning.

Ye-haw!!!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - The United States urged China to observe international maritime rules on Monday after five Chinese ships harassed an unarmed U.S. Navy ship in international waters in the South China Sea.

"Our ships operate fairly regularly in international waters where these incidents took place. We are going to continue to operate in those international waters and we expect the Chinese to observe international laws around them," White House spokesman Robert Gibbs told a news conference.

A second article discusses this in more detail.

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration vowed Monday to keep up military surveillance in waters off China and protested to China about what it called harassment of an American ship doing that work last week. The Pentagon charged that a Chinese intelligence gathering vessel and four others "shadowed and maneuvered dangerously close" to the USNS Impeccable surveillance ship in the South China Sea on Sunday, then threw obstacles in the water as it tried to leave.

In an odd twist, the unarmed Impeccable, which is operated for the Navy by civilian mariners, turned fire hoses on one vessel that came within 50 feet of it. The Chinese crew stripped to their underwear, then closed to within 25 feet.

Obama pulls back from signing statements

This article discusses how G.W. Bush used these to instruct interpretation of bills he signed. Our president elect bambam is going to pretend that Congress has 2 braincells to rub together and interpret the bills for themselves.

I am trying to figure out if he just thinks the current group will read his mind or if this is just another empty statement from the Oval Office.

The practice became highly controversial as critics accused Bush of using the previously little-known tactic as a way of subverting the intent of Congress, especially when it came to questions involving terrorism, torture and domestic surveillance.

Both presidential candidates last year hammered Bush for the practice. Obama accused Bush of attempting to change the meaning of legislation and of trying to avoid enforcing statutes that he didn't agree with. But Obama did not pledge to get rid of the practice, saying at the time that limited use of signing statements could help to protect a president's "constitutional prerogatives" once in office.

That contrasted sharply with his Republican opponent, Sen. John McCain (Ariz.), who said that he would never issue a signing statement. "Never, never, never, never. If I disagree with a law that passed, I'll veto it," he told The Washington Post.

possible hope for the G.O.P.

Obama has filled his Cabinet with some of his party's top political players, creating congressional vacancies in solidly Democratic states -- and making them potential battlegrounds.

These are tough times to be a Republican, with fewer members in Washington, polls showing strong voter disdain for the party and partisans inside the tent squabbling over who (Chairman Michael S. Steele? Uber-talker Rush Limbaugh?) speaks for the GOP.

But there is a bright spot, thanks to an unlikely source: President Obama.

By stocking his Cabinet with some of the Democrats' top political prospects, Obama has created a number of opportunities for Republicans ahead of the 2010 midterm elections.

In some states, the president stole his party's strongest U.S. Senate prospects. In Illinois and New York, he watched as governors there botched efforts to fill vacated Senate seats, turning those solidly Democratic states into potential battlegrounds.

At this point, few analysts see a serious threat to the Democratic majorities in the House and Senate (though much will depend on the state of the economy in fall 2010). If anything, handicappers say, the party is likely to gain a few more Senate seats, after picking up 14 in the last two elections.

They obviously think we were born last night

Obama budget director: We'll cut pork after '09 spending bill

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- Facing mounting criticism of a spending package packed with billions of dollars in earmarks, the Obama administration made a vow Sunday: This president will bring a halt to pork-laden bills.

Peter Orszag says it is too late to cut earmarks from the spending bill inherited from the Bush administration.

"[Such bills] will not happen when the president has the full legislative and appropriations process in place," Peter Orszag, director of the White House Office of Management and Budget, told CNN's "State of the Union with John King."

He argued that the White House had little choice but to support the $410 billion omnibus spending bill, which it inherited from the previous administration. The bill would keep the government running through 2009.

"This is like your relief pitcher coming into the ninth inning and wanting to redo the whole game," Orszag said. "Next year we're going to be the starting pitcher, and the game's going to be completely different."

And yet all it would really take is for acting president bambam to say VETO. I am certain that thought has not occurred to Mr. I don't want my daughters to be punished with a baby. What a worthless, spineless poly-tic-ian!

nursing shortage

This article gives what I believe to be a full picture of a part of the health care equation. A large part of the problem that I did not notice being mentioned is that a great number of current nurses are reaching retirement age. I can not even begin to undervalue nurses, medical assistants and other clinical staff, as they are the backbone of any medical establishment Though I believe that if it is possible to oversaturate the market if the nursing schools grow too large.

An estimated 116,000 registered nurse positions are unfilled at U.S. hospitals and nearly 100,000 jobs go vacant in nursing homes, experts said.

The shortage is expected to worsen in coming years as the 78 million people in the post-World War Two baby boom generation begin to hit retirement age. An aging population requires more care for chronic illnesses and at nursing homes.

"The nursing shortage is not driven by a lack of interest in nursing careers. The bottleneck is at the schools of nursing because there's not a large enough pool of faculty," Robert Rosseter of the American Association of Colleges of Nursing said in a telephone interview.

The grimest face I have seen put on the economy thus far

WASHINGTON – Factory jobs disappeared. Inflation soared. Unemployment climbed to alarming levels. The hungry lined up at soup kitchens.

It wasn't the Great Depression. It was the 1981-82 recession, widely considered America's worst since the depression.

That painful time during Ronald Reagan's presidency is a grim marker of how bad things can get. Yet the current recession could slice deeper into the U.S. economy.

If it lasts into April — as it almost surely will — this one will go on record as the longest in the postwar era. The 1981-82 and 1973-75 recessions each lasted 16 months.

Unemployment hasn't reached 1982 levels and the gross domestic product hasn't fallen quite as far. But the hurt from this recession is spread more widely and uncertainty about the country's economic health is worse today than it was in 1982.

Back then, if someone asked if the nation was about to experience something as bad as the Great Depression, the answer was, "Quite clearly, `No,'" said Murray Weidenbaum, chairman of the Council of Economic Advisers in the Reagan White House.

"You don't have that certainty today," he said. "It's not only that the downturn is sharp and widespread, but a lot of people worry that it's going to be a long-lasting, substantial downturn."

"I think most people think it is worse than 1982," said John Steele Gordon, a financial historian. "I don't think many people think it will be 1932 again. Let us pray. But it's probably going to be the worst postwar recession, certainly."

The 1982 downturn was driven primarily by the desire to rid the economy of inflation. To battle a decade-long bout of high inflation, then-Federal Reserve Chairman Paul Volcker, now an economic adviser to President Barack Obama, pushed interest rates up to levels not seen since the Civil War. The approach tamed inflation, but not without suffering.

The $275 billion housing stimulus program, with its comforting title "Making Home Affordable," includes $75 billion in foreclosure-relief assistance targeted at the 1 in 5 US homeowners who owe more than their house is worth.

The effort includes a mortgage-modification program intended for up to 4 million borrowers.

Each borrower will be screened based on highly exact terms: Loan amounts may not exceed $729,750 for a single-family home, with higher limits on multiple-unit homes; it must be verified that the home serves as the primary residence for its owner occupant; the home­owner must document that he or she has suffered financial hardship, limiting income – whether through loss of a job, initial deceit regarding income during the underwriting process, or failure of the lender to apply income documentation standards; and, most important, there must be an outstanding loan balance greater than the value of the home.

You don't have to be behind on your mortgage payments to qualify, and no minimum or maximum loan-to-home value ratio is set.

In addition, those who qualify will be required to participate in debt counseling. Such advice is necessary so homeowners don't build another negative mortgage record, as they may qualify only once for a loan modification through Dec. 31, 2012.

For those who do qualify, lenders and the US Treasury will jointly reduce payments to 31 percent of a borrower's income and offer a bonus of up to $5,000 in principal loan reduction – $1,000 a year for five years – for timely payments.

(screech) And exactly how does "initial deceit regarding income during the underwriting process" qualify as having "suffered financial hardship"? Quite honestly that this clause is included and that you have to be upside down in your mortgage...

What about people who were honest, bought a house they could afford, that wasn't inflated then lost their jobs?

embrionic stem cell research

On Friday the White House confirmed with Mark Memmott at The Oval that on Monday President Obama will address the Bush administration restrictions that limited researchers using federal funds to just 22 embryonic stem cell lines, while there are 1,000 or more available today.

And unquestionably, there are some tough calls ahead. Rep. John Boehner (R-OH) is certain that the same goals of medical science and research can be reached with adult, cord blood, and pluripotent stem cells. He said,

From reading other articles acting president bambam plans to completely open up federal funding of embrionic stem cell research.

A very clear picture of the present.

Amid a cratering stock market, huge job losses and continuing ad hoc bank interventions, President Obama is risking his presidency on the most ambitious remake of the federal government since Ronald Reagan, raising jitters among moderate Democrats and presenting House Speaker Nancy Pelosi with the most daunting challenge of her career.

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• Sudan's president warns aid groups in Darfur 03.08.09

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For liberals who fretted just a month ago that Obama was acting suspiciously centrist, his $3.6 trillion budget is a call to arms. It is also a carefully woven matrix that tackles everything from global warming to health care with new spending and taxes.

Pull out one piece, be it a quasi-tax on carbon or an end to charitable and mortgage interest deductions by the wealthy, and either the programs unravel or $1 trillion-plus deficits rocket higher.

"It's a terribly ambitious agenda," said Robert Reischauer, president of the Urban Institute and former director of the Congressional Budget Office. "At 30,000 feet, covering the uninsured and moderating cost growth in health has near unanimous support, as does reducing greenhouse gases and dealing with climate change. But when pen is put to paper to specify how these goals are achieved, it inevitably involves redistributing resources and power."

Moderate Democrats are already backing away from tax increases. Republicans have declared war on them.

"It's very classic redistribution of wealth," said Rep. Darrell Issa, R-Riverside. "Lyndon Baines Johnson would blush to put this budget up."

3 NEW MONEY SPENDERS in acting president Bambam's pocket

Politico is among the news outlets noting a dearth of top-level officials at Treasury and damage that's doing as the administration tries to ease the financial crisis. Today came word of three nominees who are now serving as counselors to Secretary Tim Geithner.

They are David S. Cohen for Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Terrorist Financing; Alan B. Krueger, Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Economic Policy; and Kim N. Wallace, Assistant Secretary of Treasury, Legislative Affairs. Still, Reuters says, the top ranks remain thin.

I think this article gives a more succinct view of this matter.

I am not certain that you REALLY want to read the rest of this article, as it may raise the blood pressure. But, I felt this was something worth note.

Will Rush Limbaugh be the new GOP spokesman?

NEW YORK (AP) — Rush Limbaugh has been Topic A in the political world, with Republicans debating his influence on their party and Democrats trying to elevate the conservative radio host to the GOP's de facto spokesman.

The skirmish has cast a bright light on the GOP and its search for leadership in the Obama era. But the personality-driven diversion has deflected attention from the deeper problems the party faces.

Simply put, the public isn't buying what Republicans are selling right now.

Ahhh, the sweet sound of disent:)

As acting president Obama is having trouble keeping democrats on his track.

Reporting from Washington -- President Obama is facing misgivings about his policy agenda from inside his own party, with prominent Democrats objecting to parts of his taxation and spending plans and questioning the White House push to do so much so fast.

Obama's strategy is to advance on all fronts. Buoyed by favorable poll numbers, he is moving to jolt the economy with a massive stimulus package, revamp the healthcare system and push the nation toward renewable energy sources.

Obama's party is peppered with legislators from conservative districts who are wary of a budget proposal that includes tax increases and deficit spending, even if tax cuts are also part of the plan. Already, Republicans have targeted some Democrats with advertisements pressuring them to reject Obama's plans.

"The hardest part of this is Congress' digestive tract, which is rather challenged. We're not used to this," said Rep. Jane Harman (D-Venice).

Fissures among Democratic lawmakers have already emerged. Rep. Eric Massa is a Democrat in a rural New York district where dairy farms and wineries have a major presence. The budget blueprint that Obama released last month would phase out subsidies to farmers whose sales exceed $500,000 a year.

Massa said the cutoff would apply to "every single farm" in his district.

"We're going to have a hard time passing this budget as it is," even without ending the payments, he added.

"Frankly, I'm not about to abandon America's farms in favor of America's boardrooms. I won't be part of that plan," he said.

Rep. Harry Mitchell is a Democrat who represents a predominantly Republican district in suburban Phoenix. Mitchell said he could not support provisions in Obama's budget that would raise the capital gains tax for couples earning more than $250,000 and halt the repeal of the estate tax in 2010.

Mitchell said that if the White House wouldn't relent, he would need to think carefully about whether to vote for the president's budget.

Describing his constituents, Mitchell said: "They're very cautious about taxes, and they're fiscally conservative."

Harman worries about the growing national debt. Obama's budget projects a $1.75-trillion deficit for 2009.

"My concern is that my three grandchildren under 3 years old are paying for this, and I don't like that," she said.

Republican operatives hope to encourage defections from Obama's Democratic coalition, zeroing in on potentially vulnerable Democrats from more conservative districts. Last month, they aired radio ads targeting 30 Democrats who voted for Obama's stimulus plan, including Massa.

I noticed that the farm subsidies were cut for sales over 1/2 million. Initially this doesn't sound too bad. But how about we make it for farms whose profits exceed 1/2 million. I look at this like a ray of hope. Though I figure that acting president Obama will just lower his program while the earmarks go up and further raise the cost of all of this to us, the tax payers.