Charles Rangel: Pompous Wind Bag

Seriously, how the hell is this responsible rhetoric after such a horrible;e incident. Pay your taxes pompous windbag.

It was an innocuous question, asked of Representative Charles B. Rangel by a reporter as he left a ribbon-cutting ceremony at a Hudson River park on Saturday morning: What should President Obama do during his visit to New York?

The congressman, who had been reminiscing at the podium about his boyhood when he took the 125th Street trolley to the piers to watch the boats, responded with an apparent off-the-cuff quip: “Make certain he doesn’t run around in East Harlem without identification.”

By Sunday morning, that quip with its allusion to the fatal shooting of a black off-duty police officer by a white officer, was the stuff of tabloid headlines. “Even Bam May Not Be Safe, Sez Rangel” said a Daily News headline spread across two pages, reporting the remark as “a warning” to the president, who made a brief trip to the city on Saturday, to watch his back. “Rangel’s Sick Joke,” The New York Post called it.

By midday, Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg had weighed in.

“I have a lot of respect for Charlie Rangel, but in this case, he’s just plain wrong,” he said in response to a question about Mr. Rangel’s remark as he marched in the Salute to Israel parade on Fifth Avenue.

Obama Admin: 17 Uighurs To Stay in Gitmo

Obama's backpedaling on Gitmo has hit a level of audacity that is almost stunning. First we had trial balloons floated about keeping the tribunals open, then they confirmed it and Gitmo began to look better and better. And now the Uighers will be staying, but have no fear Gitmo really isn't all that bad:

(Jake Tapper) The Obama administration asked the U.S. Supreme Court Friday to reject a request for a hearing from 17 Chinese Muslims currently being held at Guantanamo Bay Naval Base, arguing they have no right to come to America despite a district judge's orders last Fall that they immediately be brought to the U.S. and released.

"Petitioners are free to return to their home country, but they understandably do not wish to do so, because they fear inhumane treatment there," reads the filing, signed by US Solicitor General Elena Kagan, Assistant Attorney General Tony West, and other Justice Department officials. "Petitioners are also free to go to any other country that is willing to accept them."

Many European countries are waiting for the US to accept the Uighurs before they agree to accept any more detainees from Guantanamo, but there is strong resistance from Congress, which recently voted to keep any detainees out of the US -- even out of US prisons.

But not to worry -- the Obama administration says the Uighurs' detention isn't so bad, considering.(Emphasis mine) "In contrast to individuals currently detained as enemies under the laws of war, petitioners are being housed under relatively unrestrictive conditions, given the status of Guantanamo Bay as a United States military base," Kagan writes, saying they are "in special communal housing with access to all areas of their camp, including an outdoor recreation space and picnic area." They "sleep in an air-conditioned bunk house and have the use of an activity room equipped with various recreational items, including a television with VCR and DVD players, a stereo system, and sports equipment."

Sounds like Limbaugh was right when he called it Club Gitmo!

Intrest Rates Up on Inflation Fears

Just great, and it will only get worse as Obama and the Democrats spend by the trillions.

The 1.4-percentage-point rise in 10-year Treasury yields this year pushed interest rates on 30-year fixed mortgages to above 5 percent for the first time since before Bernanke announced on March 18 that the central bank would start printing money to buy financial assets. Treasuries have lost 5.1 percent in their worst annual start since Merrill Lynch & Co. began its Treasury Master Index in 1977.

“The bond-market vigilantes are up in arms over the outlook for the federal deficit,” said Edward Yardeni, who coined the term in 1984 to describe investors who protest monetary or fiscal policies they consider inflationary by selling bonds. He now heads Yardeni Research Inc. in Great Neck, New York. “Ten trillion dollars over the next 10 years is just an indication that Washington is really out of control and that there is no fiscal discipline whatsoever.”

Investor Dread

What bond investors dread is accelerating inflation after the government and Fed agreed to lend, spend or commit $12.8 trillion to thaw frozen credit markets and snap the longest U.S. economic slump since the 1930s. The central bank also pledged to buy as much as $300 billion of Treasuries and $1.25 trillion of bonds backed by home loans.

For the moment, at least, inflation isn’t a cause for concern. During the past 12 months, consumer prices fell 0.7 percent, the biggest decline since 1955. Excluding food and energy, prices climbed 1.9 percent from April 2008, according to the Labor Department. ...........

This time it’s different because the Congressional Budget Office projects Obama’s spending plan will expand the deficit this year to about four times the previous record, and cause a $1.38 trillion shortfall in fiscal 2010. The U.S. will need to raise $3.25 trillion this year to finance its objectives, up from less than $1 trillion in 2008, according to Goldman Sachs Group Inc., one of 16 primary dealers of U.S. government securities that are obligated to bid at Treasury auctions.

“The deficit and funding the deficit has become front and center,” said Jim Bianco, president of Bianco Research LLC in Chicago. “The Fed is going to have to walk a fine line here and has to continue with a policy of printing money to buy Treasuries while at the same time convince the market that this isn’t going to end in tears with fits of inflation.”

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If this keeps up it will only further strain the already bloated budget. In addition we have seen the weakening of the dollar against other currencies. God help us if Obama gets to make energy more expensive as he pushes the Waxmen-Markey rubbish.

Taguba: It Was a Misquote

I read the Taguba report, and trust me it was horrendous, now the general is saying he was misquoted the other day about the photos Obama blocked. In addition the President has also attacked the British media for accuracy in general.

The British newspaper Daily Telegraph reported that retired Major General Antonio Taguba told them that he had seen the images that Obama wanted to prevent from being released. The newspaper quoted him as saying: "These pictures show torture, abuse, rape and every indecency."

But Taguba told Salon that while he had seen pictures from Abu Ghraib which showed horrific abuse, he had not seen the 44 pictures which the American Civil Liberties Union was seeking to have released."The photographs in that lawsuit, I have not seen," he told Salon.

The Obama administration at first agreed to release the 44 pictures, but reversed course, arguing that they could put U.S. troops abroad at greater risk.The administration also accused the Daily Telegraph of misquoting Taguba, with the White House going so far as to cast doubt on the accuracy of the British press in general.Taguba, who retired in January 2007, led an investigation in 2004 into abuse at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison which included allegations of rape and sexual abuse.

Fine, now take it easy on the interviews because this rumor is out of the bag.

Max Baucus, Ted Kennedy, and the Health Care Debate

Obama's health care plan will be the final nail in the fiscal health of this nation as well as devastate health care for the Middle and Working class. We will get doctor shortages, waiting lists, and another entitlement program we can't afford. For starters we can discard with Obama's rubbish about finding enough savings to pay for any expansion. Its one of the presidents many disingenuous comments that have so typified his presidency. Now the House has floated an idea to create a government run health care plan that households up to 88,000 dollars would qualify for. In the Senate we have 3 plans that have dominated the debate. One is by Senator Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, who has been working with Republican Charles Grassely working on a Bi-Partisan bill. (A bill I suspect we would have seen if McCain would have won the election.) On the other hand we have a re-invigorated Ted Kennedy pushing the creation of a massive Government health care plan that would be along the lines of Medicare and Medicaid. Hardly comforting considering the state of those programs. Of course the president and the House tend to be in line with Kennedy's version. Pass the legislation, decide what it means later when you have everyone on the hook.

NY Times---One of the senators, Edward M. Kennedy of Massachusetts, reasserting himself after months of treatment for brain cancer, made clear this week that he favored a robust public health care plan, a government-sponsored entity that would compete with private insurers.As a starting point for his bill, Mr. Kennedy favors a public plan that looks like Medicare, the government-run program for older Americans created in 1965, when he was a young senator.

By contrast, Senator Max Baucus, the Montana Democrat who is chairman of the Finance Committee, has been working for months with the panel’s senior Republican, Charles E. Grassley of Iowa, in the hope of forging a bipartisan bill, which would probably play down the option of a public plan.Mr. Grassley opposes creation of a new government insurance program and says “we cannot afford the public health plan we have already,” referring to Medicare.

President Obama has championed a public plan, saying it would help “keep the private sector honest,” though he has indicated he will be flexible on the details.

Obama wants a socialized system to keep the private sector honest? Please and I suppose he took over GM and Chrysler to keep Ford honest. So what are the plans:

Democrats on the Finance Committee said Mr. Baucus was exploring a possible compromise. Under this proposal, the public plan would be created only if private insurance companies had not made meaningful, affordable coverage available to all Americans within several years.Senate Democrats said they believed that Mr. Baucus might settle for this “fallback plan,” which could win some support on both sides of his committee, from people like Senator Ron Wyden of Oregon, a Democrat, and Senator Olympia J. Snowe of Maine, a Republican.

Passage of comprehensive health legislation this year is a top priority for Mr. Baucus and Mr. Kennedy, the chairman of the Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions. So they may be able to resolve their differences, aides said.

A third option is being pushed by Schumer:

Senator Charles E. Schumer of New York, the third-ranking member of the Senate Democratic leadership, said Friday, “It’s pretty certain that Senator Kennedy could not support the Baucus plan, and Senator Baucus could not support the Kennedy plan.” But Mr. Schumer said “it’s possible” that both could support a version he is developing.Under Mr. Schumer’s proposal, any new public plan would have to comply with all the rules and standards that apply to private insurance. A public plan would also have to be self-sustaining, would have to rely on premiums and would not have a pipeline into the federal Treasury.Mr. Baucus said last month that while a government-run insurance plan was still on the table, “it might be a bit on the side of the table.”

We can hope, but support for a nationalized system is strong and have no illusions about liberal rhetoric. The idea is to create a replacement for private insures and over time drive them out and replace them with a single payer system. A system where government would set the prices, the house version of the bill al ready contains the use of medicare payment schedules that would be used to set prices for this new "Obamacare".

Republicans Attack Waxman-Markey

Its a horrible bill that does little for the environment but a great deal to increase the power of Washington. Not that to many Democrats know whats in the bill.

WASHINGTON (AP) -- Republicans on Saturday attacked the climate change proposal crafted by congressional Democrats and endorsed by President Barrack Obama as doing little to reduce global warming while saddling Americans with high energy costs.

Indiana Gov. Mitch Daniels, in the GOP's weekly radio and Internet address, called the House climate bill ''a classic example of unwise government.'' The address culminated a week of coordinated Republican attacks on the Democratic proposal which would require the first nationwide reductions in carbon dioxide and other greenhouse gases blamed for global warming.

GOP House members used the weeklong Memorial Day congressional recess to drum up voter opposition to the Democratic bill. The governor's criticism echoed Republican lawmakers' arguments at ''energy summits'' in Pennsylvania, Indiana and California and at other forums during the week.

The proposal to cap greenhouse emissions ''will cost us dearly in jobs and income and it stands no chance of achieving its objective of a cooler earth'' because other nation's such as China and India will not have to follow, argues Daniels, according to a transcript of the Saturday address.

Lets not forget Waxmen's connections to CDR financial products and Markey's use of hysteria through his career.

Chavez and General Raúl Isaías Baduel

The general had been an ally until the increasing corruption and tyrannical behavior of Chavez put him in opposition. Its rumored that when Chavez lost the first referendum to make him president for life the General, with military support prevent Hugo from overturning the results. Anyway as a tyrant Chavez needs control, especially now with his ability to buy supporters weakened by his disastrous economic policies.

LOS TEQUES, Venezuela — They say prison life can be lonely, but not for Raúl Isaías Baduel, Venezuela’s former army chief and once one of President Hugo Chávez’s confidants, who was detained last month. Among his cellmates in the Ramo Verde military prison here are a former admiral, Carlos Millán, and Wilfredo Barroso, a onetime general arrested along with Mr. Millán on charges of conspiring to oust Mr. Chávez.

Since February, Mr. Chávez has moved against a wide range of domestic critics, and his efforts in recent weeks to strengthen his grip on the armed forces have led to high-profile arrests and a wave of reassignments.These are seen here as part of a larger effort by Mr. Chávez to cement loyalty in the military, where some officers are growing resentful at what they see as his micromanagement and politicizing of a proud and relatively independent institution.

“Chávez does not have the support he thinks he has in the armed forces,” Mr. Baduel, 53, said in an interview in the cell that has become his home since agents from the military intelligence service arrested him, shoving him into a vehicle and holding a pistol to his temple.

In March, Mr. Chávez replaced the chiefs of the army, the air force and the Bolivarian Militia, a Cuban-inspired reserve force created to repel what Mr. Chávez repeatedly raises as the threat of an invasion by the United States.During the same wave of dismissals, Mr. Chávez also cashiered his defense minister, Gen. Gustavo Rangel Briceño. On Thursday night, intelligence agents detained another former officer, Otto Gebauer, a retired captain who was ordered to hold Mr. Chávez during a brief coup in April 2002. Mr. Gebauer, who had angered Mr. Chávez by saying the president cried during the 48-hour coup, was accused of violating the terms of his house arrest, his wife said.

And why is the general now in jail?

Mr. Baduel was long a member with Mr. Chávez of a secret cell of leftist officers that conspired to seize power. Their coup failed in 1992 but thrust Mr. Chávez, then a lowly lieutenant colonel, into the spotlight. In 2002, Mr. Baduel led a paratrooper operation that returned the popularly elected Mr. Chávez to power after the short-lived coup in April.

But after retiring as defense minister, Mr. Baduel broke with Mr. Chávez in 2007. He publicly criticized the president’s proposal to overhaul the Constitution and transform Venezuela into a socialist state with greatly expanded presidential authority. The measure was rejected by voters in December 2007, and Mr. Baduel emerged as a prominent voice of dissent.

Then, as often happens with Mr. Chávez’s critics, Mr. Baduel found himself under the scrutiny of the justice system. A military prosecutor said he was responsible for about $14 million that disappeared during his tenure as defense minister, and the military intelligence directorate sent agents to follow his every move. Mr. Baduel says he is innocent.His protestations are echoed by his fellow inmates at the Ramo Verde prison, which sits above a slum area in this city on the outskirts of Caracas.

“The plot is a concoction, an amateurish fable,” said Mr. Millán, the former admiral. He questioned why he and Mr. Barroso were still detained when no proof of the supposed conspiracy had surfaced beyond crackling taped phone conversations played on state television that were attributed to him and others.

Having just watched Valkyrie tonight I can only imagine the immense pressures the Venezuelan military is under as loyalty to Chavez means hurting their country. The last line of the story is rather haunting:

“I won’t leave this prison,” Mr. Baduel said, “until Chávez leaves the presidency of Venezuela

President Hugo Chávez, left, in 2004 with Gen. Raúl Isaías Baduel, who is now a critic of Mr. Chávez and a prisoner.

Levin Spouts Nonsense on Cheney

He knows the memos won't see the light of day so why not attack Cheney. Even though Obama's intelligence director Dennis Blair has said this about the program in other memos:

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- The Bush-era interrogation techniques that many view as torture may have yielded important information about terrorists, President Obama's national intelligence director said in an internal memo.

"High-value information came from interrogations in which those methods were used and provided a deeper understanding of the al Qaeda organization that was attacking this country," Director of National Intelligence Dennis Blair said in a memo to personnel.

The memo, obtained by CNN late Tuesday, was sent around the time the administration released several memos from the previous administration detailing the use of terror interrogation techniques such as waterboarding, which simulates drowning.

And what did Levin say? Via HA:

Levin, speaking at the Foreign Policy Association’s annual dinner in Washington on Wednesday, said an investigation by his committee into detainee abuse charges over the use of the techniques — now deemed torture by the Obama administration — “gives the lie to Mr. Cheney’s claims.”

The Michigan Democrat told the crowd that the two CIA documents that Cheney wants released “say nothing about numbers of lives saved, nor do the documents connect acquisition of valuable intelligence to the use of abusive techniques.”

“I hope that the documents are declassified, so that people can judge for themselves what is fact, and what is fiction,” he added…

“Cheney’s world view, which so dominated the Bush years and dishonored our nation, gained a little traction last week — enough to persuade me to address it head-on here tonight,” Levin said. “I do so because if the abusive interrogation techniques that he champions, the face of which were the pictures of abuse at Abu Ghraib, if they are once more seen as representative of America, our security will be severely set back.”

Abu had nothing to do with Gitmo but the Senator knows he can lie with impunity. Of course we also have the nonsense being peddled by the left and the media that waterboarding was about Iraq, but I fear that storyline will be most famous for Maureen Dowd's plagiarism.

Lawrence Wilkerson, chief of staff for then-Secretary of State Colin Powell, said that the interrogation program began in April and May of 2002, and Cheney's office kept close tabs on the questioning.

"Its principal priority for intelligence was not aimed at preempting another terrorist attack on the U.S. but discovering a smoking gun linking Iraq and al Qaeda," Wilkerson wrote in The Washington Note, an online political journal.

Wilkerson, a retired Army colonel, said his accusation is based on information from current and former officials. He said he has been "relentlessly digging" since 2004, when Powell asked him to look into the scandal surrounding the treatment of prisoners at Iraq's Abu Ghraib prison.Speaking before the American Enterprise Institute, a conservative think tank, on May 21, Cheney said only detainees of the "highest intelligence value" were subjected to enhanced interrogation techniques. He said only three detainees were waterboarded.Bush administration lawyers have said the interrogation tactics did not violate U.S. laws against torture as long as interrogators had no intent to cause "severe pain."

Three people and that was the great Al Qaeda Iraq connection the left is spouting, spare me and spin up some theories about Valerie Plame or whatever is the fancy of the month.

Abu Ibrahim International Terrorist Spotted in Lebanon

FILE - This undated file artist sketch, originally provided in March 2009 by the FBI, shows a likeness of master bomb maker Abu Ibrahim, whose real name is Husayn al-Umari. A master bomb maker who once targeted commercial airliners and was suspected of aiding the Iraq insurgency has fled to Lebanon, an FBI official confirmed Friday, May 29, 2009. (AP Photo/FBI, File)

With Hezbollah and Syria increasing its grip on power it makes sense that a terrorist would flee to Lebanon. What damage is he now going to do? I checked the Daily Star as well and they only had the AP report, we shall see.

NEW YORK (AP) -- A master bomb maker who once targeted commercial airliners and was suspected of aiding the Iraq insurgency has fled to Lebanon, an FBI official has confirmed.

There is information that 73-year-old Abu Ibrahim was reportedly in Tripoli, a city in northwest Lebanon, the official said earlier this week. The official spoke on the condition of anonymity because the investigation continues.

The Palestinian terrorist is accused of bombings in the 1980s. He was indicted in the 1982 bombing of Pan Am Flight 830. The explosion killed a 16-year-old boy and wounded more than a dozen passengers as the plane headed to Honolulu from Tokyo.

The FBI has been looking to catch Ibrahim for decades and has recently increased its efforts to arrest him. In April, an FBI committee recommended Ibrahim be placed on agency's list of most wanted terrorists.

And how bad was he?

The Iraqi government (Saddam Hussein) also used him to conduct terrorism operations against Syria and Iran. In his book, former CIA spy master Duane R. Clarridge wrote that Ibrahim had a ''talent for constructing ingenious machines of death, such as refrigerator trucks whose cooling pipes were filled with liquid explosives.''

He trained a slew of operatives in the art of bomb making whose expertise metastasized across the Middle East, including Mohammed Rashed and Abu Zyad. Rashed is behind bars at the Supermax maximum-security prison in Florence, Colo. He's scheduled to be released in less than four years.

How many Iraqi's, Coalition soldiers, and civilians did this bastard kill? By the way we do not have an extradition treaty with Lebanon.

A Second Look at Massachusetts Health Care

Obama's health care arguments have been disingenuous as he attempts a government takeover of the health care industry and the creation of a nationalized health care system for people making 88,000 dollars or less. Now Massachusetts has often been called a model for the United States and the annual review of the programs finds a great deal of it lacking. Reading the piece the only positive I can see in that more people have " a steady" source of health care, unfortunately it appears not much else has panned out:

Despite a weakening economy, Massachusetts continued to measure gains in the share of residents who reported having a steady source of health care in 2008, its second year of near-universal coverage, a new study has found.

But the annual survey, taken each fall since 2006, also raised red flags regarding the ability of residents to actually use that care, with growing numbers saying they could not afford needed treatments and many reporting shortages of primary care physicians.The study’s authors wrote that there were lessons for Washington, where Congressional committees are incorporating much of the Massachusetts model into federal health care legislation.

“Although major expansions in coverage can be achieved without addressing health care costs, cost pressures have the potential to undermine the gains,” wrote the researchers, Sharon K. Long and Paul B. Masi of the Urban Institute.

We have seen this with the Massachusetts plan, create a system without paying for it and then hope for the best. In other words its perfect Obama. Of course the shortage of doctors which is going to become a nationwide crisis soon enough is one of the killers for the program:

The difficulties in receiving care were severest among low-income residents, who have gained the most from expanded access under the state’s law, passed in 2006. It requires most residents to have health insurance and provides state-subsidized plans for the poor. Massachusetts now has the country’s lowest percentage of the uninsured — 2.6 percent, compared with a national average of 15 percent.

They reduced the amount of uninsured and ended up with even worse problems. And yes waiting lists have become a norm and you still have people using the emergency room as the doctor's office:

But the study, which was scheduled for publication Thursday in the journal Health Affairs, found that increased demand for care from the newly insured was confronting an insufficient supply of willing physicians. One in five adults said they had been told in the last 12 months that a doctor or clinic was not accepting new patients or would not see patients with their type of insurance. The rejection rates for low-income adults and those with public insurance were double the rates for higher-income residents and those with private coverage.

The authors concluded that the high rejection rates helped explain another important finding: that there has been little change in the use of emergency rooms for non-emergency treatment. Among low-income residents — defined as those with incomes of less than three times the federal poverty level, or $66,150 for a family of four — 23 percent said their last trip to an emergency room had been for a non-emergency, the same as in 2006.

The study itself is recommending a change in payments:

The report sets the stage for legislative recommendations expected next month from a state commission that hopes to slow the growth in health spending. The commission has already drafted principles calling for a system of global payments to networks of doctors, hospitals and other providers. The networks would be paid for an individual’s ongoing care, rather than for each procedure or office visit, providing an incentive to keep patients healthy rather than merely treating their ailments.

I am not a doctor so I can't speak about the merits of pay per visit verse a more salaried approach, although the network would have some discretion in payments to doctors. With that said I can how the changing of payments may have some cost reduction advantages, but how would that confront the issue of doctor shortages? Anyway what are doctors doing after they treat patients ailment, encouraging them to get sick again? By the way the program is to expensive and putting of the costs can only last long.



The Key Findings:

1. From 2006 to 2008, access to care improved markedly. For example, adults were more likely to have: a usual place to go for care (up 4.5 percentage points); a preventive care visit in the past 12 months (up 6.0 percentage points); and a dental care visit in the past 12 months (up 7.6 percentage points).

2. After declining from 2006 to 2007, the share of adults reporting they did not get needed care in the previous 12 months increased from 2007 to 2008. The increases were statistically significant for specialist care and medical tests, treatment, or follow-up care.

3. In 2008, about one of five adults reported being told a doctor’s office or clinic was not accepting new patients or patients with their type of coverage. Problems obtaining care were concentrated among adults with family incomes below 300 percent of the federal poverty level—particularly those enrolled in public programs.

4. From 2006 to 2007, the share of adults reporting problems paying medical bills or having medical debt decreased (by 2.7 and 1.4 percentage points, respectively). But by the fall of 2008, the shares of adults reporting such problems had begun to increase, moving back toward 2006 levels.

The authors of the study argue there have been widespread improvement but then go on to acknowledge the whole system could unravel from increased costs and argue that changing the payment system is the way to solve that riddle. Color me skeptical on that one and if you change the payments system how many dangers and pitfalls await.

For the full article

http://content.healthaffairs.org/cgi/content/abstract/hlthaff.28.4.w578?ijkey=kq.AYAeHKJBb6&keytype=ref&siteid=healthaff.

Iranian Official Accuses US of Bombing

I suppose the president better send another video since apparently they think we are launching terrorists attacks against mosques. Anyway this isn't the first time we have been acuused of terrorism by Iran, about two weeks ago Supreme Leader Ayatollah Ali Khamenei's attacked us for funneling weapons, money and men into the country. Official

TEHRAN (Reuters) - A provincial official said on Friday those behind a mosque bombing that killed around 20 people in Iran had been hired by the United States, Tehran's arch-foe, a semi-official news agency reported.Jalal Sayyah, at the governor's office in Sistan-Baluchestan province, said three people had been arrested in connection with Thursday evening's blast in a crowded mosque in the southeastern city of Zahedan, near Pakistan.

The explosion, which some Iranian news agencies say may have been a suicide bombing, took place on a religious holiday two weeks before the June 12 presidential election in the mainly Shi'ite Muslim country. More than 80 people were wounded.

It was the deadliest such bombing incident in the Islamic Republic in more than a decade. In April 2008, a blast in a mosque in the southern city of Shiraz killed 14 people."It has been confirmed that those behind the terrorist act in Zahedan were hired by America and the arrogance's other hands," Sayyah told Fars News Agency.

They hung the last guys accused of such a thing.

Chavez Begins 4 Day Talk Show Marathon

Sounds Wonderful, of course he won's discuss the failure of his policies of his continued theft of wealth or his egregious human rights abuses.

CARACAS (Reuters) - Venezuela's garrulous President Hugo Chavez on Thursday began a marathon four-day edition of his trademark television show to mark 10 years since the influential and widely watched program first hit the airwaves.

Chavez is a tireless talker who uses frequent television appearances to make policy announcements, berate opponents and even sing during rambling speeches often delivered in the florid vernacular of working class Venezuelans.Normally transmitted on Sundays from a different corner of the South American oil exporting nation each week, 'Alo Presidente' is the boisterous socialist's favorite forum, with the program once running to eight hours.

"'Alo Presidente' starts today and finishes this Sunday, we don't know at what time," Chavez said at the start of Thursday's program broadcast from an electricity plant in Venezuela's oil heartland state Zulia.Venezuela's media reflect its polarized society, with government stations strongly supporting Chavez and private newspapers and Globovision TV relentlessly critical of the president and his policies.

This is why checks and balances was included in the original constitution. So what is Chavez up to? Chavez is in the middle of a crackdown and turning Venezuela into a totalitarian state. There is no aspect of that country which he isn't trying to control. From his economic takeovers to the oppression of political opponents. The President does not need to provide this tyrant any propaganda victories, sadly, Obama did just that. Of course this is the same Chavez who is also supporting the Genocidal tyrant of Sudan. Lets see there was also the time Chavez thugs tear gassed the Vatican Embassy , used plastic bullets on college students , and of course booted out the ambassador from Israel.

The Disingenuous Nature of Obama and the OMB

Obama has a tendency to say one thing often while he is doing something else. Quite often he is doing the very thing he might be denying in his speech. For example he will claim:

1. That health care "reform" will provide savings for the budget when in reality it will lead to a massive expansion of spending.
2. Gitmo and tribunals are bad even as they ramp up for business again.
3. That he won't raise taxes in a recession.
4. That he won't raise taxes on 95% of Americans when Cap and Trade is a regressive backdoor tax on all of us.
5. That he wouldn't use gimmicks and give us a reality based budget when by many accounts his budget has been described as as delusional, bleak as could be, and in denial of reality.
6. Claim hope and unity and a new tone all the while using intimidation tactics and hate filled rhetoric.
7. Call for transparency and then cherry pick intel that is then released to make your side look good and Republicans bad.
8. Call for spending cuts and on of millions after increasing the budget by trillions.
9. Claim to support small business while pushing taxes on them.
10. Call for the return of Budget rules such as Paygo even though they will never be adopted.
11. Talk about turning the page on Gitmo only to open up the threat of jailing his political opponents.
12. Attack signing statements, and then use them.
13. Attack lobbyists and then use them.
14. Claim that he is opposed to earmarks then sign an earmark laden bill.

This is a just a partial list, but you get the point. The reason I compiled it was the whoppers that cover Obama's OMB website. It symbolizes Obama's total disconnect of his words compared to the reality of what he is doing. Open up the site and and you get this:

A NEW ERA OF
RESPONSIBILITY
the 2010 Budget

"A budget is more than simply numbers on a page. It is a measure of how well we are living up to our obligations to ourselves and one another."
– President Barack Obama

Of course in the real world his budget is the most fiscally irresponsible budget in the history of the United States. One so bad that the very credit rating of the US government has been called into question. Of course the "new era of responsibility" is always prefaced with Obama blaming someone else, usually Bush for anything bad. As for our obligations, that is rich, what about our obligations to keeping the country from running off the rails? In the real world this is what the "responsible" Obama is doing to us:


Total Deficit or Surplus (Percentage of GDP)




The great Spending Cuts:

Debt Held by the Public, 1965 to 2019 (Percentage of GDP)

And of Course the overall budget:



Reality Mr. President, try some especially now that health care is the next industry you are gunning for.

Tensions Mount in Korea

Dangerous stuff and I hope North Korea is bluffing for more oil.

SEOUL (Reuters) - South Korea and the United States raised the military alert level for the peninsula on Thursday after the communist North warned the truce ending the Korean War was dead and it was ready to attack.

North Korea ramped up tensions this week with a series of provocations rarely seen since the 1950-53 Korean War, including war threats, missile launches and a nuclear test that puts it closer to having an atomic bomb.

The joint command for the 28,500 U.S. troops that support South Korea's 670,000 soldiers has raised its alert a notch to signify a serious threat from North Korea, the South's Joint Chiefs of Staff said.

It is the highest threat level since the North's only other nuclear test in October 2006.

North Korea looks certain to face fresh sanctions for defying a U.N. resolution by exploding a nuclear device for a second time, Western diplomat said, with a vote in the 15-nation Security Council expected next week.

Lamar Alexander Calls for 100 Nuclear Reactors in 20 Years

If only!

OAK RIDGE, Tenn. (AP) -- Tennessee Sen. Lamar Alexander called Wednesday for doubling the number of nuclear reactors nationwide, a potentially $700 billion proposal that calls for building 100 more over 20 years.''It is an aggressive goal, but with presidential leadership it could happen,'' the third-ranking Senate Republican told an economic and technology conference at the Y-12 nuclear weapons plant in Oak Ridge.''I am convinced it should happen because conservation and nuclear power are the only real alternatives we have today to produce enough low-cost, reliable, clean energy to clean the air, deal with climate change and keep good jobs from going overseas.''

Alexander said he would deliver that message next week speaking on the floor of the Senate, where he said all 40 Republicans and many Democrats support nuclear energy. He said he hopes President Barack Obama's administration would embrace his call under efforts to reduce greenhouse gas emissions.Obama's administration is considering a cap-and-trade program designed to reduce greenhouse gases and to require larger quantities of carbon-free energy production.

The country's 104 commercial nuclear reactors produce 20 percent of the nation's electricity, while most of its energy comes from carbon-producing coal. The last reactor to come online was the Tennessee Valley Authority's Watts Bar Unit 1 reactor in Spring City, Tenn., in 1996.

Too bad Obama shut Yucca storage facility as a favor to Reid.

US Debt Held by Public Skyrockets

Debt Held by the Public, 1965 to 2019 (Percentage of GDP)

Just great, add to this reports of collapsing revenues and you have government spending on an unsustainable path. You would think we were out of money or something:



Of course with Obama's budget swimming in the red he might recognize his part in our great national bankruptcy.

Oil At 63 Dollars a Barrel-6 Month High

Going Up With Oil

Oil prices have been set to rally, we can hope they don't rally too much:

Oil prices rose to six-month highs Wednesday as an increase in U.S. consumer confidence fueled optimism that the world's largest consumer of oil is emerging from a severe recession.Traders were also watching an OPEC meeting in Vienna amid expectations the oil cartel isn't likely to cut production.

Benchmark crude for July delivery was up 67 cents to $63.12 a barrel by midday in Europe in electronic trading on the New York Mercantile Exchange. Earlier in the session, the contract reached a peak of $63.45, its highest level since mid-November. On Tuesday, the contract rose 78 cents to settle at $62.45.

In London, Brent prices rose 79 cents to $62.03 a barrel on the ICE Futures exchange.Oil prices have jumped from below $35 a barrel in March on investor expectations that the worst of the global economic slowdown is over.

Oil and stock investors took heart from Tuesday's report from private research group The Conference Board that showed U.S. consumer confidence in May soared to the highest level since last September. Stock indexes jumped on the news, with the Dow Jones industrial average gaining 2.4 percent.

I am sure Steven Chu will be all over it. Anyway Obama al ready has his talking points to deal with high energy prices, he will claim that the increase in CAFE standards will solve the issue. Of course that does nothing to alleviate the pain of the working and middle class, but making people pay more for energy has been the Presidents plan all along.

Navy Rescues 52 People in The Gulf of Aden

Lt. Katherine Scholz assists Somali migrants aboard the guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain after being rescued from a disabled skiff. (Clearly part of the plot to create a hegemony and control the world's oil)

GULF OF ADEN (May 25, 2008) - The San Diego based guided-missile cruiser USS Lake Champlain (CG 57) responded to a vessel in distress in the Gulf of Aden May 23, rescuing 52 men women and children who had been adrift in a small skiff for approximately seven days.The crew of Lake Champlain's embarked SH-60B helicopter from Helicopter Anti-Submarine Squadron Light (HSL) 45 detachment Four, conducting a routineflight in the Gulf of Aden, spotted the skiff and upon seeing the mariners in distress, notified Lake Champlain. The ship, operating approximately 30 miles away, proceeded at maximum speed to assist the skiff.Upon arrival, Lake Champlain's crew assessed the situation and began providing medical care to the mariners in distress. Seventeen personnel were immediately transferred to Lake Champlain and treated for severe dehydration and other critical medical issues. The remainder of the personnel initially remained aboard the skiff and were provided with food and water, but were later brought aboard Lake Champlain.

"U.S. Naval forces have a longstanding tradition of helping mariners in distress," said Capt. Kevin P. Campbell, Lake Champlain's commanding officer. "It's fortunate that our helicopter was flying over the right place at the right time. I'm glad we were able to be of assistance and rescue these men, women and children. Our Chief Hospital Corpsman stated that had we not found them at the time we did, the pregnant woman (who was in her third trimester) may not have survived."The skiff experienced engine problems, due to a bad fuel mixture, leaving it unable to operate at sea. A determination regarding the final disposition of the 52 personnel has not yet been made.

"We were very fortunate to have come across these people in the state they were in," said the ship's Chaplain, Lt.j.g. Jarrod Johnson. "Seeing their condition really makes your heart go out to them. You can see the relief and hope in their eyes, and hear it in their conversation."

No word yet on where they were going or where they now might end up, anyway Good Work!

Hardworking President Continues With Fund Raising

Good work, I am sure the economic progress is as real as the jobs saved or the health care savings created.

LAS VEGAS (AP) — President Barack Obama is continuing a Western trip in which he's devoting more time to fundraising than to public policy.

The president is scheduled to visit a photovoltaic facility at Nevada's Nellis Air Force Base today. He will be accompanied by Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who was the guest of honor at a fundraiser last night. The White House says the president will deliver remarks highlighting economic progress the country has made.

He follows his trip up with stop at the Beverly Hilton to raise money for the DNC. There is not much going on in the world so it makes sense that he is doing it now.

Human Rights Protestors Dragged Away as Pelosi Visits China

. As pointed out by our Secretary of State Climate change is now more important than freedom and human rights, anyway Obama needs all that Chinese money to prop up our dollar.

BEIJING (Reuters) - Chinese protesters gave a raucous welcome for House of Representatives Speaker Nancy Pelosi on Wednesday, painting red slogans and crying out for the lawmaker to live up to her reputation as a foe of human rights abuses.Police quickly dragged away the small group demonstrating in front of a central government office -- far from any of the sites visited by Pelosi and other Congress members, who have been focused on climate change negotiations.

Demonstrations over everything from pollution to crime are common in China, but rare in front of major government offices in tightly controlled Beijing. Some of the protesters spray-painted red slogans on the main gate of the State Council Information Office reading "Pelosi we love you," "Warmly welcome Pelosi, pay attention to human rights" and "Down with corruption."

"We hope that the U.S. speaker Pelosi will speak out for the human rights of Chinese people, that she won't be afraid to defend us," said protester Chen Fengqiang, 51, from the southern Guangdong provinceChen said the petitioners chose the building to make their point, as it is the propaganda arm of the government.. "Pelosi shouldn't ignore human rights. But the State Council Information Office is the mouthpiece of the government, and it doesn't tell the truth. So we came here to send a message to the top leaders too."Pelosi is a Democrat well known as a critic of China over human rights and its rule in Tibet, though her current visit is focused on climate change.

If only China was the CIA, she might speak out against them.

Benno Ohnesorg, Martyr of The Left: Turns Out Killed By Communist Agent

The Murder

The amount of criminal behavior and devastation caused by communists and their left wing allies around the globe never ceases to amaze. In this case an iconic myth of the left turns out to have been caused by a Stasi agent. The Stasi were the ruthless secret police who detailed every aspect of people's lives in East Germany. If you have seen the movie Lives of Others you know who they were.

BERLIN — It was called “the shot that changed the republic.” The killing in 1967 of an unarmed demonstrator by a police officer in West Berlin set off a left-wing protest movement and put conservative West Germany on course to evolve into the progressive country it has become today.Now a discovery in the archives of the East German secret police, known as the Stasi, has upended Germany’s perception of its postwar history. The killer, Karl-Heinz Kurras, though working for the West Berlin police, was at the time also acting as a Stasi spy for East Germany.

It is as if the shooting deaths of four students at Kent State University by the Ohio National Guard had been committed by an undercover K.G.B. officer, though the reverberations in Germany seemed to have run deeper.

“It makes a hell of a difference whether John F. Kennedy was killed by just a loose cannon running around or a Secret Service agent working for the East,” said Stefan Aust, the former editor in chief of the weekly newsmagazine Der Spiegel. “I would never, never, ever have thought that this could be true.”

The revelation last week that researchers, looking into Berlin Wall deaths and East German intelligence, had stumbled across Mr. Kurras’s Stasi files raised a host of uncomfortable issues that are suddenly the subject of national debateThe revelation last week that researchers, looking into Berlin Wall deaths and East German intelligence, had stumbled across Mr. Kurras’s Stasi files raised a host of uncomfortable issues that are suddenly the subject of national debate. For the left, Mr. Kurras’s true allegiance strikes at the underpinnings of the 1968 protest movement in Germany. The killing provided the clear-cut rationale for the movement’s opposition to what its members saw as a violent, unjust state, when in fact the supposed fascist villain of leftist lore was himself a committed socialist.

The Murderer

The East German Communist Party membership card of Karl-Heinz Kurras, a former West Berlin police officer who also acted as a Stasi spy for East Germany.

By the way the Rosenberg's were guilty as well.

Obama Wants 70% of GM: Bondholders Reject Debt For Equity Deal

Profiles in courage, especially after Obama's use of hate speech against the Chrysler's bondholders and the reports of death threats against them. It has been described as a make or break week for the industry and one can only imagine the pressure Obama and associates will put on these bondholders.

DETROIT/NEW YORK (Reuters) - General Motors Corp has failed to persuade enough bondholders to accept a debt-for-equity swap, setting the stage for the largest-ever U.S. industrial bankruptcy within days.

The event marks a critical disappointment for GM, the largest U.S. automaker and once considered the bellwether of U.S. manufacturing. A popular ad for the automaker once stated that "What's good for General Motors, is good for the USA."

"I would say this is a sound rejection of an unsuitable offer," said Pete Hastings, a credit analyst at Morgan Keegan who has followed GM. "I have been saying for some time that this thing was dead on arrival and we were just waiting for the doctor to pronounce it dead. Now that's happened."

The largest U.S. automaker had so far failed to gain anywhere near the 90 percent of bondholder support desired to stave off bankruptcy, two sources familiar with the discussions told Reuters on Tuesday. Bondholders have until midnight to make their final decision on the tender.

As of midday Tuesday, the source said the company had only a "low-single-digit" percentage interest from bondholders.

Of course Obama has his own plans for the company:

DETROIT — The government will hold a large share of General Motors after the company emerges from bankruptcy protection, and will provide G.M. with about $50 billion in financing so that it can reorganize, people with direct knowledge of the situation said Tuesday.The Treasury Department will receive about 70 percent of the new G.M., while the United Automobile Workers union will hold 17.5 percent through its retiree health care fund. The fund also would receive warrants for an additional 2.5 percent of stock in the new G.M., with a price to be determined later, potentially giving it a total of 20 percent.

That is half of the stock that the U.A.W.’s fund, called a Voluntary Employee Beneficiary Association, or VEBA, was expected to receive under plans drafted this spring.The figures were outlined to union leaders in Detroit, who met Tuesday to consider a new agreement between the U.A.W. and G.M.

Bondholders will receive about a 10 percent stake of the new company, and others will receive a smaller percentage, these people said.G.M., which has already received $19.4 billion in financing from Treasury, would get an additional $50 billion or slightly more in debtor-in-possession financing, which it would draw upon during its reorganization.The Treasury plans to create a new version of G.M. with its most attractive assets, like Chevrolet, Cadillac and some of its manufacturing operations. The rest of G.M. would be sold or liquidated.

It looks like bankruptcy might be the only option left.

Push for TARP Money to be Used for Muni-Bonds

As far back as January the House had voted on using TARP money for muni-bonds and its another example of the convergence that occurred between the Democrats and various actors of the in the muni-bond market. The devastation of the muni-bond market such on local communities such as in Jefferson County Alabama is threatening to lead to some of the greatest municipal bankruptcies in history. Of course many of these deals were corrupt and scandalous and put together by CDR Financial products and elected Democrats, but have no fear a bailout may be on the way!

California is asking that money from the Treasury’s TARP, the Troubled Asset Relief Program, be used to help back more than $13 billion in short-term borrowings. Members of Congress and several municipalities want bailout money to be used to cover more than $1 billion in losses from investments by municipalities in debt issued by Lehman Brothers, the investment bank that went bust.

And Representative Barney Frank, chairman of the House Financial Services Committee, is drafting legislation that would have the Federal Reserve, and potentially the Treasury’s bailout money as well, stand behind floating-rate municipal bonds — a $400 billion market that provides short-term financing to municipalities, but which has been largely frozen in the current credit crisis.

Another measure drafted by Mr. Frank, Democrat of Massachusetts, would create a public finance office within the Treasury Department to reinsure $50 billion in municipal bonds. This proposal comes as downgrades of municipal bond insurance companies have made it more difficult and costly for state and local governments to issue bonds.

So we have the remarkable spectacle of all of these muni-bond deals going sour, the Banks, AIG, and the democrats making out like bandits, and now the Democrats on a Federal level using our taxpayer dollars to rescue their fellows on a state and local level. In addition we have various state and localities who simply got burnt by bad investments such those who owned now worthless Lehman debt. They to are clamoring for help. As of now Geithener and Frank have been somewhat cool to the idea, but they are looking at it. And how bad has it gotten for the muni-bond market:

Clearly, market conditions are not favorable in several corners of the municipal bond market, which consists of more than 50,000 public entities that have issued about $2.7 trillion in debt.

In April, Moody’s Investors Service issued its first-ever blanket report on municipalities and assigned a negative outlook on the creditworthiness of all local governments in the United States. This suggests that Moody’s may downgrade the ratings of many municipal issuers, which would increase their borrowing costs.

2.7 trillion in paper, how much of that is based on real bonds and how much of that is phantom bonds? The Economist had noted about the troubles in April and the downgrade was bound to have negative consequences.

North Korea Fires More Rockets

What is the end game to all of this?

SEOUL (Reuters) - North Korea, defiant in the face of international condemnation of its latest nuclear test, fired two short-range missiles off its east coast on Tuesday and accused the United States of plotting against its government.

In a move certain to compound tensions in the region, South Korea said it would join a U.S.-led initiative to intercept ships suspected of carrying weapons of mass destruction, something Pyongyang has warned it would consider a declaration of war.

South Korea's Yonhap news agency quoted a government source in Seoul as saying the North had test-fired one surface-to-air and one surface-to-ship missile off of its east coast. The missiles had a range of about 130 km (80 miles).

The North fired off three short-range missiles on Monday.

Monday's nuclear test, the North's second after one in 2006, drew sharp rebuke from regional powers, and U.S. President Barack Obama called Pyongyang's atomic arms program a threat to international security.

The demonstrations of military might have also taken a toll on Seoul's jittery financial markets, worried about the impact of North Korea's growing belligerence in a region which accounts for a sixth of the global economy.

Are Venezuela and Bolivia Supplying Uranium to Iran?

On a day that North Korea detonates an atomic weapon that is vastly superior to anything they have done before we have this wonderful story. To be frank it wouldn't surprise, the whole lot of them are thick as thieves and I would not be shocked if other countries or corporations a re involved.

JERUSALEM (AFP) — Israel suspects Venezuela and Bolivia of supplying uranium to Iran, according to a foreign ministry document leaked to media."We have information according to which Venezuela provides uranium to Iran for its nuclear programme," the document says.

"It seems that Bolivia is also a supplier of uranium to the Iranian nuclear programme," the document said, adding that Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez has played a key role in boosting Iran's ties with Bolivia.The document said Venezuela is helping Iran dodge UN imposed sanctions.

It further claimed Iran is establishing cells of the Hezbollah militia in northern Venezuela and on Venezuela's Margarita Island.Iran denies Western and Israeli suspicions that it is developing nuclear weapons, asserting that its nuclear programme is for peaceful purposes only. It is defying a UN demand to halt uranium enrichment.

Chavez has voiced support for Iran's nuclear programme.

Axis of Evil, anyway its not like Iran is being any different then usual:

TEHRAN, Iran (CNN) -- Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad on Monday ruled out nuclear negotiations with other nations, saying, "Iran's nuclear issue is over, in our opinion.

At a news conference in Tehran, the hardline president also said that if re-elected he again will call for a debate with President Obama.

Ahmadinejad previously urged a debate with President Bush and offered to debate both Obama and Republican presidential candidate Sen. John McCain during last year's U.S. presidential campaign.

Crazy.