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POPSPOLL: aMERICANS, AND MILLENNIALS LACK CONFIDENCE IN GOVT A year into the Obama administration, we find that Americans — and younger Americans — are having a crisis of confidence,” says Carl Anderson, CEO of the Knights of Columbus, the group that commissioned the poll. “People are increasingly pessimistic about the government’s ability to handle the economic crisis and a majority believes that increased government regulation will hurt the economy.”
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POPSHouse Approves Barney Frank’s Massive Power Grab BILL TITLE: The Wall Street Reform and Consumer Protection Act of 2009 FINAL VOTE RESULTS FOR ROLL CALL 968 H R 4173 RECORDED VOTE 11-Dec-2009 Republican 175 No Votes 0 Yea Votes Democratic 27 No Votes 223 Yea Votes TOTALS 202 No Votes 223 Yea Votes http://clerk.house.gov/evs/2009/roll968.xml
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POPS$6 Billion Payoff: Barney Frank Gives In To Congressional Black Caucus Shakedown Crew
“For those of us who walked out, it was absolutely essential that we have parts of that legislation directed toward helping people who have been left out of all of these bailouts,” Rep. Emanuel Cleaver, D-Mo., one of 10 black caucus members in the Financial Services Committee, said…Among the caucus’ demands were greater assistance for minority-owned auto dealerships and banks that lend in African-American communities and more government advertising in minority-owned media. No word on how much of a cut the wealthy minority businessman Percy Sutton will get. Or whether corruptocrat Maxine Waters’ favorite bank, OneUnited, will snag an even bigger share of TARP funds from this new deal. Rremember: she has already finagled $12 million in TARP money for OneUnited, one of her key campaign donors and a company in which both Waters and her husband own massive amounts of stock. Mark Penn got his. The CBC’s got to get theirs. Power to the people!
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POPSIdeology And Tactics
What particular ideology are we speaking about here? If it is the strategy of acquiring power and wealth and control as opposed to the rush from day one to hand over to corporate buddies every piece of public land, every vital government function this isn't bolted down, entrusting the environmental regulation to the polluters, the huge federal debt King George left us, the widening wealth gap between the top and the bottom--actually top and middle--which Republicans are not merely indifferent to, but I believe quite pleased about. Did I forget trying to block or reverse every bit of social and political progress we have made? If they had their way at each step, we'd still have slavery, aristocracy, and monarchy everywhere; little freedom of speech, the press, no social safety net. Now--while all of this works quite well for powerful interest groups, it is not working for the American people or our economy and it never did no matter how many times they package it differently.
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POPSUSA Supreme Court Screw Up!
Today the USA Supreme Court (the Bush ones), by the slimest of majorities, 5-4 decision, overturned 100 years of campaign finance restrictions. The rules are crazy & bad now. (Money dominates our elections to the max) It's fulls of loopholes, also. It defies regulation but --- now it's going to be a hundred times worse! You don't have to arrest people in the USA if you don't like what they are saying. It's easier to just ignore them. Or, even better, drown out their voices so they have zero chance of getting heard. What the Bushies on the Supreme Court did today allows corporations to spend as much as they want on elections: No Limits. (Not even the limits with loopholes). No limits at all. Exxon will make more campaign ads. Make their own documentaries. Support candidates more directly. And they will thus be able to lobby for even bigger "research grants," and tax breaks from the government. No limits. Hire some bloggers. Hire people to post on Clipmarks. Gads!
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POPSCattlemen fight EPA with 'Climategate' The appeal comes as Republicans in the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives have vowed to try to block the EPA's ruling. Thies argues that Congress, not the EPA, should be the body to enact legislation regarding climate change. "When it's put in Congress' hands, the democratic process is at work and Congress can decide, 'Is it appropriate to regulate greenhouse gases or not?'" she said. "When the EPA decides in a dictatorial fashion that they should be regulated ... we're very concerned about that process."
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POPSVictoria Riskin Information Prior to her work as a human rights activist, Victoria Riskin enjoyed a career as both as a psychologist in private practice and as a television writer and producer often in partnership with her husband, David W. Rintels, Emmy award-winning writer/producer. Her first film, The Last Best Year, was written about her relationship with a dying patient and starred Mary Tyler Moore. Her other award-winning television movies included My Antonia, an adaptation of the classic Willa Cather novel, and World War II; When Lions Roared, The Member of the Wedding and a Town Torn Apart.
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POPSU.S. to Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says “The situation is they are losing gobs of money, up to $400 billion in mortgages,” Wallison said in a Bloomberg Television interview. The Treasury Department recognized last week that losses will be more than $400 billion when it raised its limit on federal support for the two government-sponsored enterprises, he said. Lax regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac led to the mortgage companies taking on too many risky loans, Wallison said. “It turns out it was impossible to regulate them,” he said. “They were too powerful.” He said no one knows how much will be needed to keep the companies solvent. U.S. to Lose $400 Billion on Fannie, Freddie, Wallison Says - Bloomberg.com http://bit.ly/8FhHPH
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POPSA remarkably bitter take on the "top ten stories of the last decade" -- in short, we're hosed The last paragraph is worth quoting in full: "The meaninglessness of elections: This is the most embittering revelation of all. Despite the greatest electoral majority since Johnson crushed Goldwater in '64, Obama has betrayed everything he ran on. In every case where he had the opportunity to confront power " in financial bailouts, financial regulation, health care, wars and military spending, utilities and global warming, national surveillance " Obama has sided with the rich and powerful against the interests of the American people. He has probably engendered more cynicism, more disaffection with government than any president since Richard Nixon. It will deal a staggering blow to the hopes of mobilizing masses of people again for a real takeback of government. And he's not even one year into it."
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POPSHealth Care Bill Could Face String of Legal Challenges Third, auto insurance regulation occurs at the state level. When the Congressional Budget Office considered the idea of a health insurance mandate back in 1994 under the Clinton administration, it concluded that the mandate would be "an unprecedented form of federal action." The only congressional mandate close to that was the draft, the CBO concluded. Other legal objections are emerging in the wake of a concession that Sen. Ben Nelson, D-Neb., won for his state as a condition for his support of the health care bill. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid agreed to provide for full and permanent federal aid for Nebraska's expanded Medicaid population. It was only one of a slew of hand-crafted sweetheart deals for those senators who agreed to support the bill. Graham said his state could file an equal rights suit under the Constitution. The Constitution calls for "equal protection" of all citizens.
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POPSPage 148 Of The Health Bill Will Allow Government To Determine The Care You Get ...... after this ridiculous bill has been passed, that will determine what is and what isn’t an acceptable health care choice for you, or your doctor. I’ve spoken about the other side of this before. Both the House and Senate versions of the health care bill create insurance exchanges that all Americans must by their health care through. The government controls what insurance plans are offered on those exchanges. Now, per this part of the bill, your insurance company can only pay out to health care providers who meet the government’s standards for providing care. Meaning, for instance, that if the government should decide to stop covering mammograms for women younger than 50 then you won’t be able to buy a plan which covers that, or go to a hospital which gives such screenings. The same goes for all sorts of treatments, drugs, medical devices, etc. If it isn’t government approved, you won’t get it.
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POPSA simple health care solution that Congress won't consider. This is a cool blog. Rick Toone certainly does not look like a conservative, Bible-thumping, birther, but he sure does not like the idea of government-mandated and government-run health care. I had not even heard of Ron Paul's proposal. Makes too much sense for Congress to seriously consider it.
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POPSBarack Obama's Rule by EPA Decree Is a coup d'etat Against Congress, Made In Britain - ClimateGate In the first place, regulation can be challenged in a way that laws cannot. So the EPA’s proposed ruling on so-called “Greenhouse Gases” can be opposed extensively with litigation, to the point that the ruling might not yet be in force when Obama demits office. In the second place, the EPA is funded by Congress. So, if the Agency is being used to bypass or neuter Congress, why should legislators not play hardball and retaliate by cutting off its funding? The EPA may look formidable, but its situation is rather as if Rommel were buying the fuel for his tanks from the Allies. But what is of compelling interest on this side of the pond is the way in which the bullets to shoot down American democracy were made in Britain. The trail is not hard to follow.
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POPSStates Reassert Sovereignty With Legislation September 21, 2009 Although the resolutions are not legally binding, Tenth Amendment Center founder Michael Boldin said they “serve notice” that states will no longer automatically enforce federal mandates in areas they believe the central government has no constitutional authority. Montana’s first-in-the-nation law reasserting state authority with the regulation of firearms manufactured and sold within state boundaries was soon followed by a similar law in Tennessee. Officials from the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives have already sent letters to gun dealers and federal permit holders in both states telling them to ignore the state law. A court battle is next. Nearly 20 other states have similar legislation in the works, including directives to their governors to order National Guard troops home from Iraq and Afghanistan. Next year, Arizona will have a state constitutional amendment on the ballot that allows residents to opt out of any national health care program.
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POPSHas "Command and Control" Bureaucratic Dictatorship Arrived? The ruling is alarming in its breadth, but perhaps even more disturbing is what it reveals about the Obama administration's view of democratic and constitutional government. The Obama administration seems to regard government of the people, by the people and for the people as an inconvenience rather than a blessing. If the peoples' representatives in Congress do what it wants, great. If not, they will use their power to get their way by any means necessary. Apparently, that includes issuing open threats to another branch of government. Here's what an anonymous senior administration official told Congress, speaking through the New York Times: "If you don't pass this legislation, then ... the EPA is going to have to regulate in this area," the official said. "And it is not going to be able to regulate on a market-based way, so it's going to have to regulate in a command-and-control way, which will probably generate even more uncertainty."
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POPS Obama Banking Bill Passed by US House mortgages of financially struggling borrowers was defeated. David Hirschmann, a director of the US Chamber of Commerce, said: “While there is a laundry list of bad choices that were made by the House, the creation of the CFPA tops the list.” However, he said he was encouraged by the “growing group of moderate Democrats” who helped amend the bill to prevent states from setting tougher consumer protection standards. Another provision that has been resisted by banks allows regulators to impose a loss on creditors of failing financial institutions that need to be seized by the government. After stark warnings that the provision would make credit less liquid and more expensive, the size of the “haircut” to be imposed on creditors was reduced to up to 10 per cent and some securities were exempted. But it stayed in the bill. Read full Financial Times article at http://bit.ly/8SGlGW Copyright The Financial Times Limited 2009
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POPSGET Ready, GET Set, WORLD GOVERNMENT ! Further, Alex points out that this scheme is just the implementation of a larger-scale plan to de-industrialize the already developed world and maintain control over the emerging spheres-- from Maurice Strong to Paul Ehrlich & now-Science Czar John P. Holdren, top globalists have targeted human activity as a negative and implemented eugenics
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POPSThe Nefarious Force Behind Cap-and-Trade "Climate Religion" to our very severe recession is taking place. Significant increases in taxes or interest rates have been shown in the past to have the potential to stall or crush a recovery. Moreover, now that the government’s claimed fundamental motivation for this legislation is apparently, at least in part, a sham, there is a growing suspicion among many people that the government knew that climate change arguments were overblown all along. Why, then, are they so dead-set on passing cap-and-trade? It’s All About Power and Control The present administration has virtually declared themselves to be socialist, and their actions support this perspective. The have needlessly nationalized financial and automobile companies, greatly increasing their power in those sectors. They’ve gone to the extent of setting executive salaries in a supposedly free market. Moreover, the president has openly stated that he want to “spread the wealth around”----
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POPSTHE DEADLIEST CARD GAME IN TOWN
but they have joined the right’s sycophants and willingly do the bidding of the LOBBY FIRMS in order to receive the dirty money (more like blood money) these cut-throats will give them (to turn a blind eye) in the form of campaign contributions. A shell game of sorts, where the suckers, in many instances, have no idea of what is going on and how it negatively affects their well-being. It's a sad game that cannot be won by anyone who falls into a category called LOW-INCOME. The banks and credit card companies’ makeup all the rules and they are always in their favor. NO ONE, can get out of the traps they set, while they siphon off any earnings said suckers have given their blood, sweat and tears to acquire. It should be a crime because it is criminal but it is not. Watch, learn and weep for those who get snared in THE DEADLIEST CARD GAME IN TOWN, where there is no place to turn for help. (MORE) http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/creditcards/view/ thinkingblue
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POPSHouse Attacks Fed, Treasury ... Ron Paul's Measure Approved The Fed faces a stinging backlash from legislators from both parties who argue that has too much power and too little oversight. On Thursday, the Senate Banking Committee began debating legislation that would largely remove the Fed from bank supervision over the objections of the Fed and the Obama administration. The Fed audit provision was added to pending legislation on financial regulation that the committee's chairman, Barney Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, had planned to put to a vote Thursday. But he abruptly announced late in the afternoon that the bill wouldn't move ahead until after Thanksgiving. The reason: Ten members of the Congressional Black Caucus on the committee said they would oppose the bill to protest a lack of action to address the economic pain borne by their constituents. Although the economy appears to be growing again, lawmakers face increasing pressure in their districts to do more to boost growth and address an unemployment rate now at
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POPS14th AMENDMENT-Equal Protection clause. Besides the systemic ban, a key component of ObamaCare may also run afoul of the Constitution. The "individual mandate" for citizens to buy health insurance seems to violate the 14th Amendment's Equal Protection Clause. In The Washington Post, attorneys David Rivkin and Lee Casey assert: The otherwise uninsured would be required to buy coverage...for no other reason than that people without health insurance exist. The federal government does not have the power to regulate Americans simply because they are there.
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POPSYet Another Obama Admin Power Grab Even the gaping hole that has been burned in the Constitution through the commerce clause can't cover this naked power play by the facist Obama administration. Yet nobody will even give a peep apparently. Probably because publicly education citizens are too stupid to read and understand the Constitution.
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POPSThe Cost Of This Imperative Will Be Paid For In Lost Freedoms This bitter pill might be easier to swallow if the new left was at least honest in admitting that the cost of seeing this imperative through will be paid for in freedoms. These new Knights Templar have defended their cause with constant references to affordability and yet under their plan what is affordable ceases to be a subjective measure that each man can make for himself according to his individual needs and priorities. Rather it becomes an objective measure defined by the new “Commissioner of Health Choices.” Every American will be forced to purchase an insurance policy. The government will decide what benefits those policies must include. Even if you are happy with your current insurance plan you will have to switch to a policy that includes the government mandated benefits even if you don’t want them, will never use them and their inclusion will increase the price you pay for coverage. And suppose you decide for whatever reason that you are simply not going to pay? .....
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POPSHealthcare Lies #1 in Series I ask: Who was it, when was it, and what was the alleged purpose of instituting such regulations? Behind the alleged intentions, what were the true intentions? Was there pre-knowledge that the effect would be detrimental to consumers in the long run? Was the well-being of the people sacrificed in order to cause the state of healthcare to degenerate and costs to spiral out of control just so eventually the people would acquiesce to governmental control? After all, go back only to the Clinton effort. When that failed do you imagine Democrats wanted to see conditions improve or get worse? That answer is obvious. The worse it got, the more pleased they had to be.
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