March 1, 2009
 

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From $1 trillion in debt
to $4 trillion in debt
in six weeks

 


 

 

 

 

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ACORN Destroying American Elections The activist group, ACORN, is subverting America's election system by using fraud and corruption to mislead poor, minority communities, and the media is complicit in the effort, an organization of Republican lawyers claims.

"[ACORN’s] antics include embezzlement, cover-ups, document destruction, misuse of taxpayer funds for political purposes, voter fraud, campaign finance violations, and non-profits abuse," said Heather Heidelbaugh, a Pittsburgh attorney and vice president of the Republican National Lawyers Association (RNLA).

"Most of us think ACORN is all about trying to conduct massive voter register drives, but that’s just a ruse," Heidelbaugh said as part of a panel discussion at the Conservative Political Action Conference on Thursday.  "What ACORN is trying to do is change the very core of what America is, and they’re using poor people and people of color to do it."

More here . . .
A Modest Proposal Roland Burris is obviously going to put "U.S. Senator" on his mausoleum, but I can think of another entry that might belong there, as well: "Destroyer of the Illinois Democratic Party."

Here's the dilemma Burris has created for his fellow Illinois Dems by refusing to resign. Burris not only denies the state's Democratic Governor Pat Quinn the power to appoint another Democrat to serve out the Senate term until a special election can be held in 2010; his continued presence in the Senate threatens to cast a cloud over those elections and hurt the Demcorats' chances in them. 

So why not just effectively remove Burris from office by having a special election this spring?  Because such a move might very well hand the seat to the GOP, since the Republicans have one obvious candidate in Mark Kirk to rally around, and the Democrats have a slew of them -- ranging from Jan Schakowsky to Danny Davis to Jesse White -- who might split the vote. (Which is presumably why Illinois Dems appear reluctant to hold a special election.)  In other words, the Dems will have a hard time winning with Burris in the Senate and a hard time winning without him there.

Unless Illinois Democrats can find one candidate for an '09 special election who would unite the party and trounce Kirk. And, actually, I can think of one Illinois Dem who could do just that: Michelle Obama.  She has a 49 percent approval rating (paired with just a 5 percent disapproval rating) and is almost certainly even more popular in her home state.  More importantly, at a time when the federal government is going to be showering money on the states, she could credibly argue to Illinois voters that they'd certainly get their share.
Global New Deal The UK's Gordon Brown  hopes to forge a partnership with Obama in Washington this week, to call for a "global new deal" to lift the world out of recession.

As he prepares for his first White House visit since the inauguration, the prime minister has hinted that he is ready to make further tax cuts to boost the UK economy.

Brown will meet Obama on Tuesday and address a joint session of Congress on Wednesday.  Aides say he has both to demonstrate to a skeptical British public that he commands the respect of the president, and to persuade the American political establishment that global action is needed to rescue the US economy.

Brown is under pressure to persuade American political leaders to sign up to bold aims for the G20 summit of industrial and leading developing nations, which is to be held in London next month.

The prime minister will borrow from the rhetoric of Franklin Roosevelt, who introduced the government-financed New Deal to tackle the US Depression of the 1930s.  He will argue that his 21st century 'global new deal' will also require public spending on a huge world-wide scale.
How Dumb? PowerLine blog asks the question, "How Dumb Does He Think We Are?"

Obama has a remarkable ability to utter howlers with a straight face, but this one from today's radio address, talking about his proposed budget, stretched even his flexible standards of truth:

"These steps won't sit well with the special interests and lobbyists who are invested in the old way of doing business.  I know they're gearing up for a fight as we speak.  My message to them is this:  So am I."

As Obama well knows, lobbyists all over Washington are lighting cigars with $50 bills at the prospect of having $3.7 trillion worth of spoils to divvy up.  Obama must think the American people -- his supporters, anyway -- are complete idiots.
Obama Grants Eminent Domain Rights to China

This is an update to yesterday's report.

 

 Red County has a report that points to the Examiner as the source.

The Examiner names the Patriot Room and LiveLeak as its sources.

LiveLeak deadends. The LiveLeak report has no source.

Patriot Room attributes the report to the Hal Turner Show -- "Honest talk in a time of universal deceit."

The Hal Turner Show blog, in a February 26, 2009 entry, entitled, "FEDS GRANT EMINENT DOMAIN AS COLLATERAL TO CHINA FOR U.S. DEBTS!," contains this statement in the second paragraph:

"On February 11, Bloomberg Business News reported that China was seeking "guarantees" for its US Government debt, and it now appears they got it.  Well placed senior sources at the US Embassy in Beijing CONFIRM the formal written agreement was delivered by Secretary of State Hillary Clinton during her recent trip to China."

The third paragraph draws a conclusion:

"This means that in the event the US Government defaults on its financial obligations to China, the Communist Government of China would be permitted to physically take -- inside the USA -- land, buildings, factories, perhaps even entire cities - to satisfy the financial obligations of the US government."

It appears Turner draws his conclusion from this statement in the Bloomberg report:

He Zhicheng, an economist at Agricultural Bank of China, the nation’s third-largest lender by assets, "In talks with Clinton, China will ask for a guarantee that the U.S. will support the dollar’s exchange rate and make sure China’s dollar-denominated assets are safe," said He in Beijing.  "That would be one of the prerequisites for more purchases."

Bloomberg Business News reports that China was seeking "guarantees" for its US Government debt -- probably true.

As Bloomberg reports:

"China’s loss of more than $5 billion from investing $10.5 billion of its reserves in New York-based Blackstone Group LP, Morgan Stanley and TPG Inc. since mid-2007 may increase its demand for the relative safety of Treasuries." said Zhang Ming, secretary general of the international finance research center at the Chinese Academy of Social Sciences in Beijing.

"The government will be a net buyer of Treasuries in the short term because there’s no sign they have changed their strategy."

So, in the negotiations, China made it clear they were shaky about the deal and they wanted guarantees.  Those guarantees would come in the form of Treasuries -- bonds.

So, China will hold a lot of American bonds.

While in China, Hillary Clinton went on Chinese television and urged China to keep buying U.S. treasury bonds. "It's a good investment, it's a safe investment."

"Our economies are so intertwined.  The Chinese know that in order to start exporting again to its biggest market, the United States has to take some drastic measures with the stimulus package.  We have to incur more debt.  The Chinese recognize our interconnection"

More than anything else, China always wants security of resources going into the future,".  The crisis, and falling asset prices, open up a significant part of the world.  China will think of investing pretty much anywhere there are resources, not just the places that other countries don't want to go.

The Chinese are following a strategy to move very aggressively into acquiring natural resource assets all over the world to fuel China's continued growth.  Alan Tonelson, a research fellow with the U.S. Business and Industry Council, told reporters in 2005. "It's all part of a Chinese campaign to move, again, very aggressively into the American economy."

So, the question becomes -- what is our exposure?

Buried way, way down in the US - China agreement there is a standard bond agreement that contains language giving whomever or whatever access to the eminent domain process?

And, what about this vote? -- the U. S. House of Representatives' voted on a motion offered by Foxx  (R - VA, NC) that would prevent funds in the Omnibus Appropriations Act from being used to exercise the power of eminent domain.

H.R. 1105 — Omnibus Appropriations Act, 2009, February 24, 2009, Managers: McGovern / Session

"To make in order and provide the appropriate waivers for amendment #6, offered by Rep. Goodlatte (R-VA), which would prevent funds in the bill from being used to exercise the power of eminent domain to take private property from a private entity and give that property to another private entity, while exempting certain enumerated uses, such as highways, prisons, public utilities, and in cases of national emergencies or national disasters declared by the President."

The motion was defeated 4 to 7.

 I know I spent more time buying my last car than Obama spent organizing this trillion $ deal.  There's no way all the "t"s are crossed and all the "i"s dotted.

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