Rarely in the annals of legislative history have so many and diverse legislative proposals been made in such quick succession by a White House with a paper pipeline to Congress. Harry Reid is really dancing to the not so subtle strains of the Administration’s tune talking points in hand He has learned slick moves like… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
When I read today that Puerto Ricans do not want their Commonwealth to become the 51st state I scanned some of the reasons why they don’t want this to happen. Topping the list? They don’t want to pay federal taxes. Since it has been made clear to us post health care reform law that the… [Read more…]
April 28, 2010
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We have just emerged from a long period of heated health care debate, heated discord over every detail in the bill and painful passage of the bill into law. Democrats took figures from the Congressional Office of the Budget and doggedly supported cuts in Medicare to reduce medical costs and thereby the national debt. But… [Read more…]
April 27, 2010
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Around about the time of the two nuclear weapons conferences (Obama’s and Ahmadinejad’s) that came in the midst of the breakdown in US relations with Israel that had scuttled the “indirect” peace talks, the Iranian leader revealed that he had written to Obama: [That he could] achieve Middle East peace if the US changes its… [Read more…]
April 27, 2010
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Republicans have “delayed” (FT.com) not “blocked” (every other MSM news outlet) the pending financial reform legislation. Haste in putting it together is only one reason [NYT]. Lack of including key players in the financial meltdown, Sally Mae and Freddie Mac, is another [NYT]. Even more impressive, many Republicans want tougher rules on derivatives [Huffington Post].… [Read more…]
April 25, 2010
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According to CNN, Lindsey Graham’s statement last week in reaction to Sen Harry Reid’s move to push immigration reform ahead of the climate bill could derail the President’s current legislative agenda. CNN fortune-telling and tea leaf reading is not an exact science. [CNN] Graham’s oft-quoted out of context statements were taken from a letter to… [Read more…]
April 24, 2010
How effective was the 2007 arms embargo against Iran? As in Cuba, Iran turned its efforts to independently produce what it needed and is now a supplier to other countries. Forging working agreements with Russia, North Korea, China and other nations, Iran has imported needed military technologies to expand its own. In recent weeks, Iran… [Read more…]
April 23, 2010
UPDATE and Correction: 7:oo PM EDT – Six police officers were killed in a drug war shootout in Juarez, Mexico [not in Arizona] shortly after the new Arizona immigration law was signed. [CNN] This has come days after the AP reported that “[a]fter a two-year battle that has killed more than 5,000 people, Mexico’s most… [Read more…]
April 23, 2010
Back in 2003, the Washington Post reported: Richard S. Foster, Medicare’s chief actuary for nearly a decade, said administration officials threatened to fire him if he disclosed his belief in 2003 that the drug package would cost $500 billion to $600 billion. Lawmakers in both parties accused the administration of concealing important information that could… [Read more…]
April 23, 2010
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Regarding current leaks from the Rod Blagojevich trial, a must read will be Professor Jacobson’s post today at legalinsurrection.com, “My Blago’s Back, Is Obama gonna be in trouble”? It summarizes current misdeeds of the Wicked White House – including those of the Wicked Warlock himself. Former Michigan Gov. Rod Blagojevich’s attorneys have asked the judge… [Read more…]
April 22, 2010
Mexico has spoken this week. The proposed Arizona immigration law waiting to be signed will create bad feeling and bad enforcement (i.e. racial profiling). [Finance - Yah00] Mexico is a way station for immigrants from Central and South America bound for the US. They also are harboring immigrants from Asia and other countries as well. … [Read more…]
April 21, 2010
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Recently Iran’s President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad warned that if the US were to attack Iranian nuclear installations, it could expect an attack involving nuclear materials within US borders. This was the first such official threat from the Iranian leader. If you thought that this was empty, inflated rhetoric, this week, the US Department of Defense released… [Read more…]
April 21, 2010
We have seen in the recent passage of the Health Care and Education Reform Act that one important goal of the Obama Administration in the area of education reform has been passed into law: Loan origination will be through the Federal Government. Additional reforms will be handled in legislation as follows: The fiscal 1011 Budget… [Read more…]
April 20, 2010
He can lower his voice, remind you he is like any other academic looking for proof of a case and you are lulled into thinking here is a reasonable man. He puts a smile on his face and delivers a clever, sarcastic stinging line concocted to tweak Obama and he appears irresistibly clever, or he… [Read more…]
April 19, 2010
On assignment for the Toronto Sun [via Huffington Post], Danielle Crittenden felt covering Sarah Palin at a fund-raising dinner in what she considered a Canadian backwater would be a walk in the park. After all, she would be in blue-collar Hamilton, Ontario, far from the beltway or the glam of TV and how this “celebrity”… [Read more…]
April 29, 2010
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