Barack Obama -- March 6, 2009

March 6, 2009

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

event	description
Obama Policies Feed Panic	Since Barack Obama was sworn in as president on Jan. 20, stocks have tumbled to record lows -- with investors losing an estimated $2.5 trillion in market value. The trend continued Thursday, with the Dow closing down 281 points, a 4.1 percent drop for the day. Since Inauguration Day, the Dow has fallen 20.4 percent. All week, negative headlines have competed with the slumping market ticker, including early news Thursday that General Motors might well go bankrupt despite billions in taxpayer loans. As selling sped up, Citigroup traded at one point under $1 a share, General Electric dipped under $7, and international financial names like Barclays saw declines of nearly 30 percent on the day. "Everybody is so bearish right now that you would expect to be in the midst of a counter-trend rally," Steven Goldman, market strategist at Weeden & Co, told CNNMoney. "But the implosion in the banking and insurance sectors is just overwhelming." Obama has moved aggressively on economic and fiscal policies. But investors -- if the market is any indication -- are giving his initiatives a chilly response. CNBC's Jim Cramer also says Obama has created an atmosphere of panic.
Obama’s Big Bang Agenda	Forget the pork. Forget the waste. Forget the 8,570 earmarks in a bill supported by a president who poses as the scourge of earmarks. Forget the "$2 trillion in savings" that "we have already identified," $1.6 trillion of which President Obama’s budget director later admits is the "savings" of not continuing the surge in Iraq until 2019 -- 11 years after George Bush ended it, and eight years after even Bush would have had us out of Iraq completely. Forget all of this. This is run-of-the-mill budget trickery. True, Obama’s tricks come festooned with strings of zeros tacked onto the end. But that’s a matter of scale, not principle. All presidents do that. But few undertake the kind of brazen deception at the heart of Obama’s radically transformative economic plan, a rhetorical sleight of hand so smoothly offered that few noticed. The logic of Obama’s address to Congress went like this: "Our economy did not fall into decline overnight," he averred. Indeed, it all began before the housing crisis. What did we do wrong? We are paying for past sins in three principal areas: energy, health care, and education -- importing too much oil and not finding new sources of energy (as in the Arctic National Wildlife Refuge and the Outer Continental Shelf?), not reforming health care, and tolerating too many bad schools. The "day of reckoning" has arrived. And because "it is only by understanding how we arrived at this moment that we’ll be able to lift ourselves out of this predicament," Obama has come to redeem us with his far-seeing program of universal, heavily nationalized health care; a cap-and-trade tax on energy; and a major federalization of education with universal access to college as the goal. Amazing. As an explanation of our current economic difficulties, this is total fantasy. As a cure for rapidly growing joblessness, a massive destruction of wealth, a deepening worldwide recession, this is perhaps the greatest non sequitur ever foisted upon the American people. "You never want a serious crisis to go to waste," said Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. "This crisis provides the opportunity for us to do things that you could not do before." Things. Now we know what they are. The markets’ recent precipitous decline is a reaction not just to the absence of any plausible bank rescue plan, but also to the suspicion that Obama sees the continuing financial crisis as usefully creating the psychological conditions -- the sense of crisis bordering on fear-itself pan -- c—for enacting his "Big Bang" agenda to federalize and/or socialize health care, education and energy, the commanding heights of post-industrial society. Clever politics, but intellectually dishonest to the core. Health, education and energy -- worthy and weighty as they may be -- are not the cause of our financial collapse. And they are not the cure. The fraudulent claim that they are both cause and cure is the rhetorical device by which an ambitious president intends to enact the most radical agenda of social transformation seen in our lifetime.
Obama Intel Chief Under Review	At the request of House Republicans, a government watchdog is examining whether the new chairman of an influential U.S. intelligence panel has compromising ties to Saudi Arabia's government. At issue is the appointment of Charles Freeman, U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War, to lead the National Intelligence Council. It writes the national intelligence estimates, the best judgments on critical security issues from the 16 intelligence agencies, for the president. The national intelligence director, Dennis Blair, said through a spokeswoman he believes the inspector general reviewing the matter "will put to rest any questions about Ambassador Freeman's suitability, character and financial history." A dozen House Republicans, including House Minority Leader John Boehner of Ohio and party whip Eric Cantor of Virginia, asked this week for a probe into whether Freeman has personal, financial or contractual links with the Saudi government. Republicans on Thursday also asked for a review of Freeman's relationship with China and Iran. Freeman has served on an international advisory board of the government-owned Chinese National Offshore Oil Company, according to a biography posted on Businessweek.com. The company signed a $16 billion agreement with Iran to develop one of its oil fields in 2007. Update -- 03/11/2009 -- Saudi/Manchurian candidate expurgated -- he's been sh!tcanned.
Obama to Beef Up PA Army	Obama intends to add as much as $55 million for training of an emerging Palestinian Authority army that trains at an American-built training base in Jordan, Reuters reported. The American strategy has been to strengthen PA forces and prepare them to fight terror and keep the rival Hamas faction at bay. The United States refers to the PA troops as "special forces" and not an army, which is prohibited under the Oslo Accords. The Hamas militia completely overwhelmed the Fatah militia in Gaza in June, 2007, surprising Americans who already had begun training Fatah forces. United States Middle East envoy George C. Mitchell has asked Lieutenant General Keith Dayton, who has been overseeing the training, to remain at his post for two more years.
Gun Sales Booming	The prospect of stricter gun control laws and a deep recession have triggered an explosion in gun sales that’s being felt locally. Area gun shop owners say the demand for guns and ammunition in recent months has exceeded supply. Business is booming at Trigger Time, a gun retailer and indoor shooting range in Perry Township, 3316 Lincoln Way E., co-owner Dan McNemar said. One gun supplier told McNemar they’ve never experienced such a surge in demand. "The whole industry is skyrocketing right now," he said. Some customers are concerned the Obama administration will reimpose a ban on assault weapons that expired after President Clinton left office, McNemar said. The economic downtown – and the fear of more break-ins and robberies – also has people worried. "I think it’s a combination of everything," he said. "People aren’t 100 percent sure as far as bans and everything, and people are panicking with the economy going down. People are getting more interested in self-defense."
Kyl's Krazy	Sen. Jon Kyl, R-Ariz., has referred constituents raising concerns over President Obama's eligibility to occupy the Oval Office to an online "fact" organization that relies for its answer partly on information from the Obama campaign. The response from Kyl to a voter who asked about Obama's ability to meet the constitutional requirements for president said: "Thank you for your recent e-mail. Senator Obama meets the constitutional requirements for presidential office. Rumors pertaining to his citizenship status have been circulating on the Internet, and this information has been debunked by Snopes.com, which investigates the truth behind Internet rumors." The Snopes explanation to which Kyl directed constituents refers back to another website, FactCheck, which in turn cites as documentation of Obama's Hawaiian birth a "Certification of Live Birth" that the Obama campaign posted online during 2008. The Snopes explanation notes that there could have been citizenship issues for Obama, except for the confirmation from FactCheck via the Obama campaign that Obama actually was born in the United States. Critics, however, have pointed out that the "Certification of Live Birth" posted online is not, in fact, the same as a "Birth Certificate," and COLBs have been issued by Hawaii to parents whose children are not even born in the state -- even Sun Yat-Sen, the Father of Modern China, who was born in China, has one. "Do you see the ridiculousness of this response? Snopes.com (a left-wing website) is now the arbiter of who is and isn't qualified to be president," said the voter who received the response. The person's identity was withheld for this report.
Close Circle	The unholy alliance between the White House and ABC's George Stephanopoulos goes beyond mere conference calls with President Obama's Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel. The executive producer of "This Week" is married to newly-confirmed United Nations Ambassador Susan Rice. Such was reported by Commentary magazine's Jennifer Rubin Thursday: You know those fawning little bios which the MSM runs? Well sometimes you learn the strangest things: "[UN Ambassador Susan] Rice is married to Canadian journalist Ian Cameron, executive producer of ABC’s This Week with George Stephanopoulos." Wait. The EP of a top Sunday show is married to a top Obama official? Shouldn’t this be disclosed on air, at least when they are discussing foreign policy? Just as fascinating, Broadcasting & Cable reported Cameron received this position in October: It's official. Ian Cameron has been named executive producer of This Week With George Stephanopoulos, based in Washington. Cameron had been a senior producer at World News for the past seven years. What kind of objectivity can this program possibly have concerning the White House if its executive producer is married to a high-ranking member of the Administration?