The president recently welcomed the NCAA women’s basketball champions to the White House, after the meeting he shot hoops with the team. The media was not allowed to attend.
The president released his own video report of the event, that is why the media was not allowed to attend. This is not the first time that the media was shut out of an event only to have the president release his own government controlled report of the event.
While this story by itself isn’t a big deal we are seeing a slow but sure move by this administration to control what gets released about the administration to the press. It may start out with a benign story about a basketball team but what will be the next story that the administration blocks the press from attending in order to establish a government run propaganda machine?
Once it becomes acceptable to the people for the government to not only silence the media but to also release their own versions of whatever issue comes up we will be entering uncharted waters. There will be no accountability by the administration to the people as the government will control what the people see and hear.
This is only the beginning, once the government controls the media we are in big trouble. This is straight out of Hugo Chavez’s playbook. If you control what information is disseminated to the media and if the only account of what the White House is up to is a government produced media report we are all in trouble.
I admit that in this particular case it is not a big deal but this does set a precedent and who knows in the future what the media will be shut out of in order for the government to produce their own official account.
This is a policy that needs to be stopped NOW before the government has total control over the media.
Today the governor of New Hampshire, John Lynch, declared that he would veto any budget that included the proposed 15 cent gas tax.
In very difficult economic times, the last thing we should do is increase the gas tax
This is certainly good news, but it is only a beginning. One has to wonder if he would hold the same position if gas prices hadn’t skyrocketed since the new president was elected. Since the election, local gas prices have risen almost a dollar. If gas prices were the same $1.45 that they were when President Bush left office I would be willing to bet that he would support the tax increase but seeing how prices have soared since the Democrat has occupied the White House it is no longer politically viable to support a further increase in the price of gas. But at least he is doing the right thing on this issue.
In his statement he declared that this is where he draws the line, but he did not say that he would oppose ALL tax increases, just the gas tax. If it is a bad idea to raise the gas tax during “difficult economic times” than wouldn’t it be a bad idea to raise ANY taxes during the same time?
As I said, this is a good beginning but there are other taxes on the table besides the gas tax, and the governor refused to comment on these taxes, so we must look at what else is on the other side of that line that the governor has drawn. And there are more taxes there, including a $10 increase in the vehicle registration fee and toll increases, among others.
The governor should declare that he opposes all of these tax increases also but the problem is, they were his idea. During tough economic times it is a bad idea to raise any taxes and take money away from the people who are trying to make ends meet. The governor admitted this while condemning the gas tax increase.
Under the governor’s plan we will still be facing higher taxes just not as much as we originally thought. I suppose we are supposed to believe that he is doing us a favor, and he is in a way, but if the governor really cared about the taxpayers of New Hampshire he would cut his irresponsible spending increases during tough economic times and not raise ANY taxes.
Of course we are not even sure that we can take the governor at his word. After all he has been telling us for five years that he opposed gay marriage only to do a reversal on that issue, how are we supposed to believe him now? He has shown us that he is not a man of his word and that he will succumb to party pressure. Once Democrats apply the pressure to the governor on the gas tax he will probably tuck his yellow tail between his legs and sign the gas tax increase into law.
Lying
Today the House of Representatives voted against starting a probe into Nancy Pelosi’s claim that she was misled by the CIA on the Bush administration’s harsh interrogations techniques.
Nancy Pelosi has had several stories pertaining to what she knew about waterboarding and when she knew it, but in her last statement on the issue she claimed that the CIA lied to her about the practice of waterboarding.
Lying to congress is a crime and if it is true that the CIA lied to Nancy Pelosi than they should have to pay the penalty.
There are only two possibilities here; either the CIA lied to Nancy Pelosi back then or Nancy Pelosi is lying now. Why then would the Democrat controlled house vote against investigating a crime that was allegedly committed against them? An accusation that was made by one of their own. An accusation that has been made by the far left for years.
Either they condone the crime that was allegedly committed against them or they know that Nancy Pelosi is full of shit.
The fact that they have decided not to investigate an alleged crime tells us that they know this crime did not take place and they are trying to cover for Nancy Pelosi’s lies.
It is sort of ironic that after years of listening to “Bush lied. people died” accusations from the far left that when an opportunity arose to prove that the CIA has been lying to not only the American people but also to congress that the same people who have been accusing Bush of lying are unwilling to take the steps necessary to prove it. This should be an opportunity to prove once and for all that the Bush administration was lying to the American people yet the House is unwilling to probe these accusations.
And the reason for that is because while there has been some lying going on Nancy Pelosi has been the culprit and not the victim. The House’s decision not to investigate this issue tells us all that we need to know about who is telling the truth and who is lying.
As I wrote about here, the Democrats are trying to rush the cap and trade bill through congress before the American people can find out what is actually in the bill. The cap and trade bill is almost 1,000 pages long and much like the stimulus bill, the Democrats want to pass it before members of congress have a chance to read it.
Republicans have threatened to read the complete bill word for word on the senate floor before any vote is taken. A procedure that lawmakers have every right to enforce. (What a novel idea huh? Reading a bill before a vote is taken.) This idea is not sitting well with Democrats because they do not want the American people to find out what is in this bill.
Democrats are now countering the Republican efforts to read the bill by hiring a speed reader to help lawmakers read the bill quickly and thwart Republican efforts to make the bill known to the public.
I guess you have to give the Democrats credit for their ingenuity, this has to be the first time that a speed reader has been employed to thwart the efforts of a party to read a large bill before voting on it.
Democrats will stop at nothing to ensure that this bill passes before Americans realize that this bill is going to screw them big time. It is more important to them to pass legislation on the scam that is known as global warming than it is for them to at least allow the people to hear what is in this bill. In their eyes it must be passed quickly or it may never pass at all.
In order to protect the president’s agenda on global warming the Democrats have stooped to the point where they feel the need to exercise such a bush league maneuver in order to sneak this bill through congress.
I have to admit that this news caught me by surprise, in a good way. The president has asked for a 30% increase, a total of $200 million, in funding for an ICE program called the “Secure Communities” program.
It is not very often that I agree with the president on anything. As a matter of fact the only issues that I have agreed with the president on is his continuance of every one of the Bush administration’s policies on the war on terror Overseas Contingency Operation. This is another example of the president continuing a Bush administration policy. Not only a continuation but an expansion.
What is the “Secure Communities” program?
The money allocated for this program goes to finding jailed illegal aliens and deporting them once they have served their sentences. This may be the first money that the president has spent on a program that I agree with. I still can’t get over the fact that this president didn’t decide to stop this program when he announced that he was going to cut a few million dollars out of his multi-trillion dollar budget. Perhaps he calculated the political ramifications of ending this program and figured it wasn’t worth the fallout. Regardless of many of the politician’s views on amnesty for illegal aliens, the American people are by and large opposed to the rights that have been given to illegal aliens.
I can only hope that the president and Homeland Security are actually serious about deporting illegal aliens who have committed additional crimes once they broken into the country and that this isn’t window dressing. I still have my doubts.
On a side note I find the title of the article that I linked to (Obama Expands Bush Administration Program to Deport Criminal Illegal Aliens)
a little redundant. Criminal and illegal, is it necessary to have both of those words in the title? Are we forgetting that it is a crime to break into the country in the first place? Are we forgetting that the manner in which they arrived in this country made them criminals in the first place?
Homeland Security Secretary Janet Napolitano has said that deporting illegal aliens who have committed crimes would be a priority under her leadership.
That is where my skepticism still remains, the fact that Homeland Security and the president are still seemingly unwilling to acknowledge that coming to this country illegally is a crime. The sentence above is a redundancy, if you are an illegal alien you have already committed a crime, you shouldn’t have to be jailed for an additional crime in order to be deported.
The expansion of this program is a good start, but that is all that it is. If we are going to deport all of the illegal aliens that have committed a crime than we must deport all illegal aliens. They have all committed a crime.
Senate Blocks Obama’s Plan to Close GITMO
Today the senate officially killed the president’s plan to close GITMO. The main sticking point is the fact that the president didn’t have a plan on what to do after GITMO was closed. The easy part is saying that you are going to close GITMO, the hard part is actually closing GITMO. Words are more easily spokenthan actions are actually put in place. Eventually the president will have to come up with a plan if he really wants to close GITMO. I am not so sure that he really wants to close GITMO as much as he wants it to appear that he wants to close GITMO.
The senate also passed an amendment that would ban any taxpayer money being used to relocate the terrorists being held at GITMO on United States soil. This could be what actually kills the notion that GITMO will be closed any time in the near future.
The senate will vote to fund the closing of GITMO if the president ever comes up with a viable plan for closing the detention center, but if that plan includes relocating the terrorists on United States soil the funding will be dead on arrival. With no other country willing to take these killers the only option may be to relocate them on United States soil and if the senate holds firm that will not be an option.
I have always held the belief that GITMO would not be closed and today’s action goes a long way to prove my theory. In the end the president will be able to save face by saying that he tried everything in his power to close GITMO but it just didn’t work out. He will be able to say that the Bush administration screwed this up so bad that he has no choice but to continue the Bush administration’s policies until a viable option can be worked out.
This scenario will please both sides of the debate; the left will be able to continue to blame Bush for GITMO remaining open, and the right will be happy that these terrorists will be kept right where they belong.
Now that the president has bailed out the national economy and has already saved 150,000 jobs he is moving on to even bigger problems– the world economy.
The president is asking congress to approve $100 billion in loans to the International Monetary Fund so that the American taxpayer can begin to bailout Europe.
With America already borrowing the money for the stimulus and bailout bills where exactly are we getting the money to loan to the IMF? Are we going to borrow more money from China so that we can lend it to Europe?
As our national debt rises to all time highs and while we are already borrowing over 40 cents for every dollar, it doesn’t seem like now is the time to worry about bailing out the rest of the world.
Democrats are Trying to Fast-Track Cap and Trade Bill Before Americans Realize What it Means
Democrats are trying to rush through the administration’s cap and trade bill before people have a chance to see what is actually in it. Does that sound familiar? I think that is does. Can you say stimulus bill?
This bill is 1,000 pages long and debate is going to be short and sweet. Once again lawmakers will be asked to vote on a bill that they can’t possibly read before voting. Does this sound familiar? I think that is does. Can you say stimulus bill?
There is a reason that Democrats want this bill, which will raise taxes on 80% of Americans, passed before the public can see what is in it. And that reason is the American people have no idea what the hell cap and trade is.
The poll showed that only 24 percent of voters could correctly identify that cap and trade is an environmental policy
Simple math tells us that 76% of Americans don’t even know that cap and trade is an environmental policy.
But that is not all.
29% thought it dealt with Wall Street
Almost 30% of people polled think that cap and trade is a bill that will make Wall Street pay for the sin of being successful and having more money than they do. How many of these people support this legislation because the falsely believe it will punish the rich? Is it any wonder that a majority of this group of people probably support cap and trade?
But it continues.
17 percent thought it was health care reform
17% of those polled think that cap and trade means that they are going to get free health-care. No wonder why they support it.
And one last little tidbit.
30% had no idea what the term means
I give these people credit, at least they admit that they don’t know what the hell they are a talking about. These people at least told the truth and admitted that they don’t know what issue cap and trade is supposed to deal with.
Is it any wonder that the administration wants to act fast on this legislation? If the 76% of Americans that couldn’t correctly identify what issue cap and trade dealt with ever found out that the legislation was designed to raise their energy prices and force them to pay more taxes would they still support this legislation? I think not.
It is sad to me that such a large percentage of the voters don’t know what such a large part of the president’s agenda actually deals with. At least we can now understand how he was elected in the first place.
This administration sees an opportunity here and that opportunity is the ignorance of a large portion of the voting public. The administration needs to strike while the iron is hot. Delay could breed knowledge and that is the last thing that this administration needs. That is why Democrats are trying to rush this legislation through.
Massachusetts Senate Votes to Tax Taxes
The Massachusetts senate voted today to increase the sales tax by 25% to 6.5%. But there is more to this story than just another tax increase, the legislature voted to extend the sales tax to alcohol.
Alcohol had been exempted from the sales tax for a reason, there is already a separate tax on alcohol. With this vote a person buying alcohol in Massachusetts will pay the alcohol tax and then pay a sales tax on the price of alcohol which includes the alcohol tax. In other words they will be taxing you on a tax that you are already paying.
There is also talk that Massachusetts is about to extend the sales tax to gas. Massachusetts residents already pay about 40 cents a gallon in taxes between federal and state taxes, this would add an additional 6.5% tax to the total price of gas including the 40 cents in taxes they already pay for a gallon of gas. They will be paying 2.6 cents in taxes on the 40 cents in taxes that they already pay for gas.
Such is the state of affairs in the state where a revolution was born in the name of opposing oppressive taxes. Oh how the mighty have fallen.
Joe Biden is now claiming that the stimulus plan has already saved/created 150,000 jobs. He made this claim in a press release when his office released a progress report on the stimulus bill but there is no proof of his claim in the report that he filed. It seems to me that if this claim was true that it would have been included in the report.
When Joe Biden was asked where the numbers came from he sited another report that was released earlier but that report did not support Joe Biden’s jobs claim either. As a matter of fact the report that his office sited as proof said that there will not be any numbers available until August.
So where did Joe Bide get the numbers?
Tad DeHaven, a budget analyst with the libertarian Cato Institute, told CNSNews.com that the numbers were derived from a formula that would tell the administration “whatever it wanted to hear.”
“Where do you even start with this nonsense?” DeHaven asked. “This is just a political number, but I’ll leave it to him (Biden) to proclaim it a gospel truth.”
DeHaven added: “They try to make this look scientific and it’s not. It’s just politics. There’s not a lot of science to it, although they dress it up that way.”
He made the numbers up. When the administration changed their projections from “jobs created” to “jobs created or saved” this is where my initial skepticism was multiplied.
Other than government jobs that are created how are we supposed to quantify how many jobs were created or saved? It can not be done. Even if there was a way to quantify jobs created there is no way in hell that anyone can say without a question of a doubt how many jobs the stimulus bill saved. That is why the administration added that language into the argument. The administration needed an “out” if Americans continued to lose jobs after the stimulus bill went into effect and the “jobs saved” argument provided that “out.”
The administration can now tell us how many jobs were saved even as more Americans lose jobs and there is no way to prove or disprove the claim.
We have seen the first example of this with the vice president. He just threw a number out there and he is hoping that it sticks, after all who can prove that it isn’t true?
