Democrats Want to Mandate Vacations: Forcing Employers to Provide Paid Vacations Stimulates the Economy!

 

 

 

Well it had to happen sooner or later….  Now we have become France without the cute berets, the Eifel tower or the snooty food. (Trust me: French food and fussy sauces are overrated!)  Our Friends in France demand that employers provide 30 days of paid vacation for their workers, making the French economy the envy of the world, and now this government mandate for the workers to “unwind” may have infected the United States.  Yes, according to the Politico the Democrats are going to use government to force your employers to give you a certain amount of paid vacation.  Not for you.  Not so you can unwind.  It’s to stimulate the economy.

What’s wrong with this picture…. How does more government interference in the form of an unfunded mandate to every employer in the nation become an economic stimulus if it forces employers to cut way back on their work force?  Employees already cost a fortune and more government red tape and expenses on employing workers for already overtaxed businesses can only harm the economy.  Look at what government mandated vacations, sick leave and maternity benefits have done for the legendary productivity of France!

At a time when the nefarious Federal Reserve System is preparing to buy more American Debt, by printing more of our money… at a time when our creditors are forming new currency alliances with any nation who has a decent currency… at a time when China is buying the assets of the world with worthless American dollars and acquiring hard assets… At a time when China is becoming a military superpower every bit our equal: our Political Leaders want everyone to have a paid vacation.  Charming.

I have but one question.  How come we don’t get as much paid vacation as the French?  It almost makes me want to call a labor strike in the name of economic justice……

Consider the article below from the Politico and consider a world in which your health care, your vacations, your car, your insurance, your bank, and your ability to drink a coke; are all dependant on getting an OK from the government.

There’s something fundamentally immoral in allowing a government to make helpless, dependent, children of their citizens.  To be an adult is to carry responsibility in many forms but to deliberately abdicate adulthood in favor of a gilded cage of big government slavery has got to be a mortal sin.  God gave us our rights and our free will but he won’t stop us from giving control of our lives to Nancy Pelosi if that’s what we choose to do.  We’ve traded faith in God and faith in our family and friends for a false faith in Barak Obama and the Politics of Malignant Narcissism. 

We confront staggering problems all around us as our political and economic institutions fail and all we can do is entertain the foolhardiness of socialist-democrat politicians peddling bad health care and unemployment disguised as government mandated paid vacations.

There was a time when adults realized that there’s no free lunch….  There’s just lunch that someone else pays for.  (Until the government runs out of other people’s money to bribe various groups out of their vote and their freedom)

May God Forgive us for our greed, and stupidity, and may the real Americans who haven’t been bought by the welfare state stand up and take this country back while there’s still time.

Congressman: We’re going to Disney By: Erika Lovley May 21, 2009 04:28 AM EST FD HIDDEN DIV
Rep. Alan Grayson was standing in the middle of Disney World when it hit him: What Americans really need is a week of paid vacation. So on Thursday, the Florida Democrat will introduce the Paid Vacation Act — legislation that would be the first to make paid vacation time a requirement under federal law. The bill would require companies with more than 100 employees to offer a week of paid vacation for both full-time and part-time employees after they’ve put in a year on the job. Three years after the effective date of the law, those same companies would be required to provide two weeks of paid vacation, and companies with 50 or more employees would have to provide one week. The idea: More vacation will stimulate the economy through fewer sick days, better productivity and happier employees. “There’s a reason why Disney World is the happiest place on Earth: The people who go there are on vacation,” said Grayson, a freshman who counts Orlando as part of his home district. “Honestly, as much as I appreciate this job and as much as I enjoy it, the best days of my life are and always have been the days I’m on vacation.” According to the Center for Economic and Policy Research, 28 million Americans — or about a quarter of the work force — don’t get any paid vacation. The center says that a lack of vacation causes stress and workplace burnout and that those evil twins cost the economy more than $300 billion each year. One more if-you’re-reading-this-then-you’re-probably-not-on-vacation fact: The United States is dead last among 21 industrial countries when it comes to mandatory R&R. France currently requires employers to provide 30 days of paid leave. Not surprisingly, some in the travel industry are salivating over Grayson’s bill; Grayson spokesman Todd Jurkowski said the U.S. Tour Operators Association and the Adventure Travel Trade Association are both on board. Other tourism and labor groups are expected to sign on in the coming days. The Politico 44 Story Widget Requires Adobe Flash Player. The U.S. Travel Association has not yet endorsed the measure, but Senior Vice President Geoff Freeman says Congress does need to consider new ways to stimulate the vacation industry and travel economy.  So far, no group has come out in opposition of the bill. Nor has anyone announced opposition to roller coaster rides, cookouts on the beach or salt-water taffy on the boardwalk.   But with many Americans out of work and an economy in shambles, some say this may not be the best time to propose more time away from the office, especially on the boss’s dime. The Society for Human Resource Management issued a statement Wednesday warning that “a one-size-fits-all, government-imposed mandate is not the answer.” Because of the 50- and 100-employee thresholds, most small businesses wouldn’t be directly affected by the bill immediately. But the National Small Business Association warned of indirect consequences; companies might artificially hold their hiring at the 50-to-100-employee level to avoid the costs of paid vacation time. The bill also could have a negative impact on manufacturers already bracing for higher costs that could be associated with the climate-change legislation working its way through the House. One place where the bill wouldn’t have much of an effect: Capitol Hill. Congressional staffers already get paid vacation, even if they don’t actually have time to take it. And members can take time off during recesses — as they will next week — albeit not as much as they once did. While members once had much of the summer off, Congress will be in session this year virtually all of June and July. That leaves August, and Sen. Lisa Murkowski (R-Alaska) says that’s not really enough time to unwind. “I’m off in the state for a full month catching up on all the things I’ve missed throughout the year, but you don’t have time for yourself,” she said. “You don’t have much time for your family. And after a while, you do start to get just tired.” Grayson’s bill is part of a larger move by Democrats to improve employee and workplace standards. Earlier this month, Democrats introduced a bill that would make employers give mandatory sick time. “The committee is looking at a number of proposals to help workers balance family responsibilities and work duties,” said House Education and Labor Committee spokesman Aaron Albright. “The fact is the United States is behind the rest of the world in ensuring that workplaces have paid leave policies. These policies not only benefit workers but also help the employers’ bottom line because of lower turnover and better job satisfaction.” But in the workaholic world of Washington, not everyone is so impressed with the restorative — or stimulative — powers of time unplugged. Asked Tuesday what he’d do with an extra week of paid vacation, Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-Iowa) said: “I’d keep the cash and spend the week working on the farm, with my BlackBerry and office files.
© 2009 Capitol News Company, LLC

The Golden State Nightmare: Massive Budget Cuts or Constitutional Chaos?

 

 

The Democrat-Socialist Workers Paradise of California has been run by Ideologues and Left Wing Extremists for decades and now they’re flat busted broke.  California has redundant programs that regulate an astonishing amount of minutia, on the one hand, or that outrageously and redundantly copy existing federal regulatory agencies on everything from the environment to civil rights programs on the other hand. California is dying from exorbitant pensions and labor laws reminiscent of the Unions that killed the Auto makers.  California has a corrupt democrat legislature that never cuts spending but only contuse to assault taxpayers creating a mass exodus of business and talent who simply won’t fork over the loot anymore. California thus throws away its tax base and expresses contempt for its pool of skilled workers. In this California resembles New Jersey and New York.  California is terrorized by environmental, “civil rights” and education lobbies; spouting hip socialist nonsense that only a tenured college professor could believe, while ignoring the fact that government cannot, and should not, solve all the ills of society.  In this they resemble the People’s Republic of Massachusetts who went broke over socialized medicine.  At the behest of surly, ungrateful, and arrogant Hispanic “Activists” California is giving away tons of benefits, from education, to health care, to housing, to illegal aliens because the businesses remaining in the state like slave labor and the Democrats like to buy votes.

Who’s going to pay the freight when the 5^th or 8^th largest economy on the planet, it depends on whose numbers you use, defaults?  California is bankrupt and their legislature is practically inoperable.  You need 2/3^rd majority to cut anything and that’s hard to come by.  That’s the only thing the Democrat legislature did effectively is make sure that their spending could never be cut, perhaps not even in the event of a total collapse of the government.  California is what happens when Ideology and Identity Politics metastasize in a state making it impossible for the state to survive its addiction to socialist ideology over truth and common sense. California is dying fast, before our eyes, and the only solution left is for every other state to pay for California’s mistakes: and continue to fund those mistakes and even magnify them.  They want all the states who did it right to pay for the states, California first among them, who did it wrong.  They want you to pay for it.  They want to steal the money once again from the federal taxpayer because “California is too big to fail”. Sound familiar?

When the Obama Administration shreds what’s left of the Constitution of the United States and takes over California will Barak get to “fire” Arnold like he did the CEO of GM?  Does anyone believe that if the legislature deadlocks over massive budget cuts, as it has done in the past, that Obama will let the states government shut down? No courts, no jails, no cops, no parks, no state services with just the California National Guard to step in and try to run the bureaucratic labyrinth that is California?  Forget selling San Quentin: is the Terminator going to have to run the prison and cook the meals all by himself?  (Maria would help but she might be busy having her hair done)

The voters have told the state “NO” on new confiscatory taxation.  The legislature is populated by hard line socialist-democrats with legions of pet projects, and you need 2/3’s of them to agree to cut a nickel from the budget: they may not be able to avoid a crash.  What happens when a modern American state goes completely off the rails and the political, as well as the financial system, totally fails?  What happens to the constitution if the United States Government destroys more tax dollars in an illegal and immoral attempt to save California? Is there any such thing as states’ rights when state government fails and cant govern itself?  What happens if the state can’t pay its bills, if the legislature is deadlocked and the government becomes unworkable?  Can a state or Federal bankruptcy judge step in as a “special Master” and make all the decisions on spending cuts that the political system was unable to do?  Under what legal authority would that occur? 

Does anyone doubt that Obama will rescue California and essentially assume command of the state under some kind of emergency powers: and thereby do to the United States exactly what California did to itself by making Kansas pay for California pensions, educational and civil rights bureaucracy while we all go down the socialist drain?

If you thought the mortgage and financial meltdown was fun last summer; just wait for this summer when the great Democrat State Meltdown kicks off with California leading the way!  Here’s the punch line:  EVERYTHING THAT’S WRONG WITH CALIFORNIA IS EXACTLY THE POLLICY POSSITION OUR PRESIDENT, BARAK OBAMA, STANDS FOR!!!!!!   What taxpayer money giant banks, insurance companies and unions didn’t steal from our children’s future will be stolen by the Neo-Socialist Democrat Party as the states they control swallow up what remains of federal tax dollars.  Between big business corruption, and giant government corruption: our entire system of government is hanging by a thread and the only one who can save us is Comrade Obama, Comrade Pelosi, and the Terminator!

Did you think last summer was fun?  You ain’t seen nothing yet!

Consider this article from Newsmax on the taxpayers revolt as expressed by yesterday’s vote in California:

Newsmax.com

http://www.newsmax.com/headlines/california_budget_ballot/2009/05/20/216178.html

Schwarzenegger’s Pro-tax Ballot Goes Down in Flames

Wednesday, May 20, 2009 7:00 AM

LOS ANGELES — Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger wanted to permanently fix California’s “broken budget system.” But three times now he has tried and failed to smooth out the state’s roller coaster revenues.

Voters on Tuesday resoundingly rejected his latest effort, a package of budget-balancing measures that he promised would provide a short-term patch for the current financial crisis and prevent further catastrophe in the future.

Instead, he now faces a $21.3 billion budget deficit and a budget system that has not changed a bit since he took office nearly six years ago.

“I think he’s discovered that this job is a lot harder than he anticipated in a state of economic downturn,” Treasurer Bill Lockyer said Tuesday of the governor who came into office in 2003 promising to “end the crazy deficit spending.”

The Republican governor faces another tough round of budget negotiations after months spent haggling with lawmakers to close the state’s first budget shortfall, which was initially $42 billion through June 2010.

Schwarzenegger will be forced to spend much of his final year-and-a-half in office struggling with the same financial woes that led to the recall of his predecessor instead of enacting the sweeping policy changes he once envisioned.

“The biggest loser would be Arnold,” said Dave McCuan, a political science professor at Sonoma State University. “It’s time to start looking for a cabinet post in the Obama administration or an ambassadorship someplace warm.”

Lockyer said Schwarzenegger and lawmakers will have to reach a new budget agreement quickly, with tax revenue coming in far below projections. Unless a compromise is struck by the end of June, the state could have trouble paying its bills by the end of July.

Political observers say Schwarzenegger and lawmakers will have little choice but to go after even politically sacred programs such as schools. An unusually high two-thirds vote threshold in the Legislature for passing budgets and partisan polarization could combine for a painful summer.

“The choices facing the governor and Legislature are daunting,” said Jack Pitney, a political science professor at Claremont McKenna College in Southern California. “Democrats have taken heat for accepting spending cuts. Certain Republicans have taken heat for accepting tax increases, and the heat’s only going to get more intense this summer.”

Many Californians have been hearing about the state’s budget problems but have yet to feel the severity of the crisis. That will soon change, Pitney said.

“For a lot of people, the budget’s been an abstraction. But with the next round, there will probably be serious consequences, particularly in the schools,” Pitney said.

Last week, the governor said he will consider shortening the school year by seven days, laying off up to 5,000 state employees and taking money from local governments, which likely would translate into cuts to police and firefighting services.

Tens of thousands of teachers also face the prospect of layoffs.

Schwarzenegger’s warning did not sway voters, many of whom said they did not trust that the ballot propositions would do much to solve California’s budget trouble.

The majority of registered voters didn’t bother to vote at all. Partial results from nearly 70 percent of precincts reporting late Tuesday showed only 19 percent of voters had cast a ballot, according to the secretary of state’s office.

Chris Almanza, 55, of Sacramento was among those who chose not to vote, in part because she was angry and frustrated at state lawmakers.

“I’m not going to vote because I don’t think it’s going to matter,” Almanza said.

The governor had particularly championed Proposition 1A, which would have created a stronger rainy day fund for troubled times and capped state spending, while extending a series of tax increases lawmakers approved in February. Those taxes would have brought in about $16 billion to state coffers in future years.

Proposition 1A also was crucial to solving many of the budget problems Schwarzenegger has had to confront in office and help him carve out a legacy for himself.

He reiterated Tuesday that he wanted to be remembered as a fighter for budget reform and said he wouldn’t be dissuaded by the overwhelming repudiation from voters.

“I have been working to accomplish this kind of reform since I was elected in 2003 and I will keep working toward it because we cannot allow this harmful and out-of-control budget process to continue,” Schwarzenegger said in a concession statement late Tuesday.

The governor planned to return Wednesday from Washington, D.C., where he spent Election Day, to start discussing the grim options with legislative leaders.

The Superpower of the Twenty First Century: China

 

 

 

As the United States contemplates the bankruptcy of several of our states, all democrat run, and how best to bail out states whose hallmark is profligate social spending; the Chinese are forming alliances with any sound currency they can find. China and Brazil have begun in earnest to remove the dollar as an entanglement in international trade. Both China and Brazil have economies and currency that’s in much better shape than the beleaguered US Dollar and the path is being cleared for an alliance of the most stable currencies on earth, first among them china, to create new channels of trade and finance based on its own currency and those of the best world currencies. Deals are being struck in currency’s other than the US Dollar and its clear that this trend is likely to accelerate to China’s benefit and at our expense.  The loss of the US Dollar and the reserve currency of the world will be quite a blow to American prestige and it will have negative ramification in geo politics around the globe.  As the world finds alternatives to the dollar it opens us up to a form of economic warfare that will destroy our economy and turn us into an economic joke as the world sends all their dollars back to us as trillions of dollars become worthless overnight.

Last summer we saw the effects of gas as a weapon against our economy as gas prices triggered the popping of the “Mortgage Bubble” which in turn took out the entire banking and finance system, insurance and the Automakers.  This summer as gas prices again turn north, over $60 a barrel as of this writing, we should be treated to the popping of the retail real estate bubble and perhaps the worst of all the return of trillions of valueless dollars to our shores resulting in an inflationary tsunami even as we make matters worse by guaranteeing the crazy liberal debt generated by states like California, New Jersey, New York, Massachusetts and so on.  The popping of the commercial real-estate bubble would be bad enough but when the world sees the insanity of how Obama will bail out huge democrat states like California by looting all the republican states until these United States find equality at last in bankruptcy. This is where the world just says NO to the US dollar.

But the Stock Market is up!  Barak is our savior!  The world won’t take a real retributive glee in sticking it to the United State for all our crimes real or imagined!  Yeah?  I got a bridge in Brooklyn I want to sell you!

As we pass through this fairly benign economic reprieve, before the next big bubbles burst, it would behoove us to consider the problems economic, foreign, and social, that are arrayed against us and prepare for a long hot summer as some fool ,somewhere, drops the match and our economy goes up in a blaze of foreign bought gasoline. The final bullet to end our economic supremacy will be the implosion of the US dollar.  It’s the dollars destruction that will truly do us in and that’s what’s being actively planned for in the story below.  This isn’t a theoretical threat to our currency: this is active planning to conduct business without the US Dollar because the world is realizing that our problems are an order of magnitude beyond our ability to correct.

Stronger currencies won’t be taken down by the stupidity of weaker currency. Look for a growing international movement of stronger currencies that will make some agreements with the IMF and that will supplant the US Dollar sometime soon.

 While the Obama Administration steals from Missouri to fund outrageously stupid spending in San Francisco; while they steal money from Montana and Texas to fund the outrageous corruption of New Jersey: they sign the death warrant of all the states.  China and Brazil are not going down with the dollar they’re blazing a new trail that don’t include dependency, in any way, on the USA.

It’s going to be a long hot summer folks!  Consider this article from the Financial Times:

http://www.ft.com/cms/s/0/996b1af8-43ce-11de-a9be-00144feabdc0.html

Brazil and China eye plan to axe dollar

By Jonathan Wheatley in São Paulo

Published: May 18 2009 18:24 | Last updated: May 18 2009 23:31

Brazil and China will work towards using their own currencies in trade transactions rather than the US dollar, according to Brazil’s central bank and aides to Luiz Inácio Lula da Silva, Brazil’s president.

The move follows recent Chinese challenges to the status of the dollar as the world’s leading international currency.

Mr Lula da Silva, who is visiting Beijing this week, and Hu Jintao, China’s president, first discussed the idea of replacing the dollar with the renminbi and the real as trade currencies when they met at the G20 summit in London last month.

An official at Brazil’s central bank stressed that talks were at an early stage. He also said that what was under discussion was not a currency swap of the kind China recently agreed with Argentina and which the US had agreed with several countries, including Brazil.

“Currency swaps are not necessarily trade related,” the official said. “The funds can be drawn down for any use. What we are talking about now is Brazil paying for Chinese goods with reals and China paying for Brazilian goods with renminbi.”

Henrique Meirelles and Zhou Xiaochuan, governors of the two countries’ central banks, were expected to meet soon to discuss the matter, the official said.

`

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Mr Zhou said the goal would be to create a reserve currency “that is disconnected from individual nations”.

In September, Brazil and Argentina signed an agreement under which importers and exporters in the two countries may make and receive payments in pesos and reals, although they may also continue to use the US dollar if they prefer.

An aide to Mr Lula da Silva on his visit to Beijing said the political will to enact a similar deal with China was clearly present. “Something that would have been unthinkable 10 years ago is a real possibility today,” he said. “Strong currencies like the real and the renminbi are perfectly capable of being used as trade currencies, as is the case between Brazil and Argentina.”

In what was interpreted as a sign of Chinese concern about the future of the dollar, the governor of China’s central bank proposed in March that the US dollar be replaced as the world’s de-facto reserve currency.

In an essay posted on the People’s Bank of China’s website, Zhou Xiaochuan, the central bank’s governor, said the goal would be to create a reserve currency ”that is disconnected from individual nations” and modelled on the International Monetary Fund’s special drawing rights, or SDRs.

Economists have argued that while the SDR plan is unfeasible now, bilateral deals between Beijing and its trading partners could act as pieces in a jigsaw designed to promote wider international use of the ­renminbi.

Any move to make the renminbi more acceptable for international trade, or to help establish it as a regional reserve currency in Asia, could enhance China’s political clout around the world.

 

Obama’s Loyalty to Unions is Absolute: Organized Labor in the Catbird Seat

 

 

 

 

California is teetering on the cliff of catastrophic financial failure but Barak Obama is determined to protect union wages in California no matter the cost.  California will be out of money in July and the Federal Government has advised the governor that they will not give California $6.8 billion in “Stimulus Money” unless California rescinds the $74 million dollar cut they made to unionized home health care workers. I’m sure Obama is taking this action because he believes its right and not because expansion and control of unions benefits the neo socialist democrat party.  The fact that Unions have destroyed everything they touch from car makers to education to government is rejected by the Obama brain trust as they demand utopian fiscal policy from a bankrupt state.

 

The fact that California was able to make such a cut in the first place is a miracle and well illustrates the desperation of their predicament.  Doubtless the Mainstream Media will praise Obama for his political courage in standing up for corrupt unions over a failed socialist state whose final bankruptcy will destroy the nations, and the worlds, economy. Why let facts stand in the way of political correctness, ideological rigidity, and moral bankruptcy?  California, like the United States itself, is a testament to the failure of big, socialist government and the elevation of a cult of personality over mere logic, reason and the timeless conventions of Western reason.  Whatever hope creditors of the Golden State may have had in cutting crazy union wages and contracts was dashed for good when Comrade Obama took this courageous stand for the reinstatement of corruption, greed and abject stupidity.

 

Consider this article from the Las Angeles Times:

U.S. threatens to rescind stimulus money over wage cuts

The Obama administration threatens to rescind billions in stimulus money if Gov. Schwarzenegger and lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers.

By Evan Halper
May 8, 2009

Reporting from Sacramento — The Obama administration is threatening to rescind billions of dollars in federal stimulus money if Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and state lawmakers do not restore wage cuts to unionized home healthcare workers approved in February as part of the budget.

Schwarzenegger’s office was advised this week by federal health officials that the wage reduction, which will save California $74 million, violates provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act. Failure to revoke the scheduled wage cut before it takes effect July 1 could cost California $6.8 billion in stimulus money, according to state officials.

 

The news comes as state lawmakers are already facing a severe cash crisis, with the state at risk of running out of money in July.

The wages at issue involve workers who care for some 440,000 low-income disabled and elderly Californians. The workers, who collectively contribute millions of dollars in dues each month to the influential Service Employees International Union and the United Domestic Workers, will see the state’s contribution to their wages cut from a maximum of $12.10 per hour to a maximum of $10.10.

The SEIU said in a statement that it had asked the Obama administration for the ruling.

 

The cut was highly contentious during last winter’s budget talks. Republican lawmakers insisted that the rapidly growing, multibillion-dollar state program, In Home Supportive Services, be scaled back significantly.

Democrats fought major reductions in the program, which they say is a cost-effective alternative to nursing-home care, but ultimately compromised.

Reversing the wage cut would require a two-thirds vote of the Legislature, meaning Republican support would be needed.

Schwarzenegger on Wednesday sent U.S. Secretary of Health and Human Services Kathleen Sebelius a letter urging the federal government to reconsider.

“Neither the Legislature nor I make decisions to reduce wages or benefits lightly, but only as a last resort in response to an unprecedented fiscal crisis,” Schwarzenegger wrote.

evan.halper@latimes.com

Times staff writer Eric Bailey contributed to this report.

Arrest Them Just Don’t Jail Them: Obama Budget Cuts All Aid for Putting Illegal Aliens in Jail

 

 

Occasionally, amid the spending spree that’s destined to bankrupt America,  the President will announce miniscule spending cuts to convince the intellectually challenged that he’s serious about cutting the budget.  It’s always great fun to see what an outright socialist like Obama would “cut” and how he would present this fiscal restraint to the fawning press.  In the interest of doing the right thing by the American people, and practicing prudent stewardship of our tax dollars, Obama has decided to cut all aid to states for locking up illegal aliens.  By this act of financial legerdemain our fearless leader can accomplish two things for himself.

1. He can crow about saving us $400 million dollars.
2. He can continue his subversion of immigration laws by demoralizing states who are already coping with federal refusal to enforce immigration law and continue to be a hero to criminal aliens who will then vote for democrats after they get the coming amnesty.

Barak Obama is a citizen of the world first and foremost; and if he can cut the budget and advance the cause of criminal aliens at the expense of the nation he’s supposed to be leading than bully for him.  If anyone has a problem with what he’s doing than the new hate crimes law making its way through congress will criminalize anyone complaining about it because that might intimidate criminal aliens.  You can bet your bottom dollar that Obama will enforce laws against decent Americans who disagree with him with great vigor, sparing no expense, because let’s face it: all his opponents are by definition, racist sexist homophobes; the reason we need “hate crimes” in the first place! 

Thank God the Democrats are always assuring us how “Brilliant” and “Intellectually Gifted” the President is because without the Mainstream Press drumming that into my scull at every opportunity I might have concluded that he was as dumb as a box of hammers.

Consider this from The Hill:

Obama budget nixes aid for jailing illegal immigrants

 

By Ian Swanson and Walter Alarkon

Posted: 05/08/09 09:24 AM [ET]

President Obama voted in the Senate to provide additional funding for a program targeted for elimination by his budget that provides states a federal subsidy to offset the costs of jailing illegal immigrants. Killing the State Criminal Alien Assistance Program would save $400 million, according to Obama’s budget for Fiscal Year 2010 released Thursday. It’s one of the largest non-defense discretionary cuts proposed in the president’s budget.     The program is popular with border state politicians in Capitol Hill, however, making its elimination a tough sell to lawmakers, particularly from California. Sen. Dianne Feinstein has repeatedly pushed for additional funding for the program, and lawmakers from other states that have costs associated with illegal aliens have also offered support. A bipartisan trio of House members from California have drafted a letter urging the House Appropriations subcommittee on Commerce, Justice, Science and Related Agencies to restore funding for the SCAAP program. The three members, Reps. Mike Honda (D), Adam Schiff (D) and Jerry Lewis, the top Republican on the Appropriations Committee, are also asking the rest of the California House delegation to sign the letter, Honda’s office said. As an Illinois senator, Obama co-sponsored an amendment offered by former Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-N.Y.), now Obama’s secretary of state, that would have provided additional funding for the program. It also would have established a grant program to defray local government health care and education costs for non-citizens. “Each year, the SCAAP program is underfunded,” Clinton said in 2006 comments urging support for her amendment. She cited a 2005 GAO study that found local governments only get 25 percent of their costs reimbursed through the program. “Throughout our country and in my State, there are counties and municipalities that are covering the costs of dealing with education, healthcare, and law enforcement without adequate or any Federal reimbursement,” Clinton said. “So we have left our local and state governments to fend for themselves. They should not be left to bear these costs alone because it is not they who are making Federal immigration policy.” Another Obama cabinet member, Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, then a senator from Colorado, was also a co-sponsor. Obama voted for the amendment, but it was defeated 43-52. Mark Krikorian of the Center for Immigration Studies, a group that has called for tougher border security, predicted it is “very unlikely” that Obama’s proposal to cut the program will be accepted by Congress. He noted that the Bush administration repeatedly tried to zero out the program, but always ran into opposition in Congress.     “It’s hard to justify getting rid of it honestly,” Krikorian said. “It’s a necessary program because the federal government is reimbursing states and localities for the federal government’s own mistakes.” Krikorian, like Clinton in 2006, argued immigration enforcement is a federal responsibility, and if state and local jails are incarcerating illegal immigrants, it is because of failed federal policies. According to the FY2010 budget, Obama’s administration thinks resources used for the program could be better served to enhance federal efforts to curb illegal immigration. “In place of SCAAP, the administration proposes a comprehensive border enforcement strategy that supports resources for a comprehensive approach to enforcement along the nation’s borders that combines law enforcement and prosecutorial efforts to investigate arrest, detail, and prosecute illegal immigrants and other criminals,” the budget states. It emphasizes that the budget will provide funding for an additional 20,000 Border Patrol agents to protect the border, and an additional $1.4 billion for Immigration and Customs Enforcement programs to support the quick identification and removal of illegal aliens who commit crimes in the U.S. The Office of Management and Budget did not respond when contacted about this story.

 

The Costs of an Incompetent Middle East Policy: Petro Dollars are Not Forthcoming While Obama Kisses Up to Iran

 

 

 

Barak Obama is finding the world of the Middle East a bit challenging these days as his latest attempt to coax Arab petro dollars into the world economy was met with a chilly silence from Gulf State Finance Ministers.  I’m sure astonishment and perplexity played a role too, as the Gulf ministers tried to reconcile the economic plea the administration was presenting with their recent abandonment of the moderate Gulf States in favor of the region’s dictator in waiting: Iran.

The entire Middle East has been watching in disbelief as Obama make one mistake after another in Middle East Politics and still has no idea the magnitude of his folly.  Obama’s policy of new friendliness and cooperation with Iran has all the moderate Gulf States, and Egypt, essentially siding with Israel who is trying in vain to “speak truth to ideology.”  Nothing can penetrate the neo socialist ideology that has come to characterize the moral bankruptcy and intellectual depravity of the American Baby Boom Generation. This blind adherence to a pie in the sky utopian socialist ideology was the brew that rendered Jimmy Carter a disaster as President and by all accounts Barak Obama is following suit.  The ideology says that we should be able to have constructive engagement with Iran and settle our differences like peace loving people while the facts on the ground indicate that we better take military action to rein in Iran before they blow up the region and every economy on earth. 

Obama era democrats don’t have a world view: they have a self image based on ideology rather than logic or basic pragmatism. Mr. Obama’s self image demands that he teach us a diversity lesson by making a friend of Iran while alienating all our real friends in the region who doubtless just “don’t get it.”  Foreign Policy via diversity training seminars led by the President of the United States, for the benefit of mankind, and the salvation of planet Earth.  If I were a cynic I might suggest to the President that if he needs to borrow money from moderate Arabs; its best that he not betray them and arrogantly ignore their contribution at least until he has the money in hand. 

Consider this article from the Debka File:

Obama’s SOS to Gulf emirs: Invest in US and global economies

DEBKAfile Exclusive Report

May 7, 2009, 9:33 PM (GMT+02:00)

 

A secret American delegation was sent by US President Barack Obama this week to solicit Saudi Arabian and other Gulf rulers for hundreds of billions of petro-dollars for investment in US and global economic stimulus plans, DEBKAfile’s exclusive Gulf sources report. They came away empty-handed.

The chilly welcome received by the delegation, which met finance ministers and the heads of banks in Riyadh and the five emirates, was generated by wide disapproval of the US president’s policy of engagement with Iran. Two other US missions had just been and gone, headed by defense secretary Robert Gates and special adviser to the US secretary of state for South Asia and Gulf affairs, Dennis Ross. Both failed to allay Gulf anger and trepidation over this policy.

Our Gulf sources report that the third delegation, which unlike the first two was unannounced, argued that since US economic recovery was not expected to turn the corner before 2011, Gulf investors still had a unique opportunity to partner the US in helping the world economy out of its doldrums. The general message was that if they Gulf rulers fail to invest in US and international markets at this point, they would miss out on the rewards of the recovery.

Not all the data presented to the Gulf officials matched the figures published in Washington and other western countries. They were informed on the quiet that Federal Reserve Governor Ben Benanke had been “premature” in his optimistic forecast of “slightly positive” growth in the second half of this year, particularly in the fields of banking and construction, and a recovery that will “strengthen” next year – even though US Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Wednesday, May 6, it was “a good, independent, credible forecast.”

The Gulf states were urged to help the global economic back on its feet because, according to US data, the Gulf Cooperation Council (GCC) would by the year 2018 rank as the world’s fifth-largest economy after the US, China, Japan and the EU. “As major players in the world economy, you cannot stand on the sidelines,” they were told.

President Obama’s discreet approach figured in general terms at the GCC meeting of heads of state and finance ministers meeting in Riyadh Wednesday, May 6, which was convened to establish a regional central bank. But no decisions were taken.

According to our sources, the negative vibes between the Gulf and Washington over the Obama administration’s policy of favoring Tehran have made these Arab rulers doubly wary of responding to the US president’s appeal for a Gulf stake in US and global economic recovery

Obama Talking Tough to Israel: A Strange Diplomatic Dance Between Washington and Tel Aviv

 

 

The Neo Socialist Brain Trust of the Ideological Obama Administration continues to “pressure” the Israeli government to essentially disembowel itself, so that there might be peace on earth and good will toward men.  If Israel would simply assume indefensible boarders and give the Islamic everything they desire than surely Iran would give up its quest for nuclear weapons. Mr. Obama thinks the key to stopping a war between Iran and Israel is to settle the “Palestinian” issue.  (Oh brother) This month, a show of consultations will take place between Obama and various Israeli leaders: in which the coldness developing between the two governments will ensure a dangerous turn of events for Israel and the Western Democracies.  Barak Obama will attempt to convince Prime Minister Netanyahu to strip his nation naked, except for a bulls-eye on their butts, and tap dance in a minefield while Obama croons a siren song of peace to Ahmadinejad. Prime Minister Netanyahu will try to get the weak and ineffectual Obama to look with his own eyes instead of a Euro/American Socialists eyes to see that Israel has no choice but to attack.  It would be better for the entire world if Israel and America would coordinate their planning, on that score, but Obama’s appeasement minded administration will have nothing to do with realities they don’t “like”.

 

The Irony that no one seems to talk about is how much the Israeli Government and Moderate Arab governments have in common in denying Iran nuclear technology.  Moderate States like Egypt and Gulf nations are far more supportive of Israeli policy, and the unavoidable attack on Iran, than President Obama and his government. Every moderate Arab government knows full well that if Iran gets the Bomb than Iran will dictate policy for the whole region because they also know, as Israel does, that any nation not dancing to Iran’s tune is going to get clobbered. In a neighborhood of knife wielding bullies and thugs, one of the dirt bags will get an arsenal of machine guns!  Iran will rule the region unless they’re stopped and the moderate Arabs know it—- and have communicated it to Washington—- but Obama spouts Democrat Ideology with his eyes wide shut!  Washington and the West have nearly as much at stake as Israel because if hostile Iran comes to dominate the oil rich Middle East we’re dependant on for economic survival: we well and truly shafted.  Moderate Arabs, and Israel, telling Obama that the only choice with Iran is a military strike against Iran and still Obama can’t comprehend the situation!  The last time we had obstinacy and stupidity at this level it was Jimmy Carters refusal to support the Shaw of Iran according to treaty and the resulting foreign policy disaster is still going on to this very day! 

 

Neither Iran nor Israel is going along on Mr. Obama’s slow boat to Shangri-La and it’s far more of a certainty that there will be a regional war in the middle east this year because Netanyahu is a stony eyed realist with responsibility for keeping his people safe.  It’s shocking to see the degree to which Mr. Obama simply doesn’t understand or can’t relate to this simple, understandable, traditional mindset. Welcome to the real world professor Obama! 

 

Consider the following article from Reuters in which its focus is not so much if Israel will attack it’s how they’ll break the news to the denizens of Obama Island in Washington!

 

Israel would inform, not ask U.S. before hitting Iran

Wed May 6, 2009 5:34am EDT

 

 

By Dan Williams – Analysis

TEL AVIV (Reuters) – When he first got word of Israel’s sneak attack on the Iraqi atomic reactor in 1981, U.S. President Ronald Reagan privately shrugged it off, telling his national security adviser: “Boys will be boys!”

Would Barack Obama be so sanguine if today’s Israelis made good on years of threats and bombed Iran’s nuclear facilities, yanking the United States into an unprecedented Middle East eruption that could dash his goal of easing regional tensions through revived and redoubled U.S. outreach?

For that matter, would Israeli Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu readily take on Iran alone, given his country’s limited firepower and the risk of stirring up a backlash against the Jewish state among war-weary, budget-strapped Americans?

Obama is no Reagan. And many experts believe the two allies are now so enmeshed in strategic ties — with dialogue at the highest level of government and military — that complete Israeli autonomy on a major issue like Iran is notional only.

So while no one questions Israel’s willingness to attack should it deem U.S.-led talks on curbing Iranian uranium enrichment a dead end, such strikes would almost certainly entail at least last-minute coordination with Washington.

Israel would want to ensure that its jets would not be shot down by accident if overflying U.S.-occupied Iraq, and to give Americans in the Gulf forewarning of possible Iranian reprisals.

“Whether or not Israel got the green light from Washington to attack Iran is almost immaterial, as everybody in the region would believe that the U.S. was complicit,” said Karim Sadjadpour of the Carnegie Endowment for International Peace.

One U.S. diplomat envisaged Israeli Defense Minister Ehud Barak telephoning Pentagon chief Robert Gates, unannounced, “to give a heads-up and explain” once the mission were under way.

Gates and the U.S. military brass have voiced distaste for pre-emptive strikes on Iran, which says its uranium enrichment is for legitimate electricity production, not weapons. But their public comments have acknowledged that Israel could break rank.

“I do not doubt that Israel will do what it thinks it needs to do, regardless of whether the U.S. approves,” said Mark Fitzpatrick, non-proliferation expert at the International Institute for Strategic Studies in London.

“Israel would seek forgiveness, not permission.”

A retired Israeli general who advises the government on strategic issues suggested there was a tacit synchronicity in recent messages about Iran from Israel and the United States:

“The Israeli threat adds urgency to Obama’s calls for diplomatic engagement, and should Israel take things into its hands, the Americans retain wriggle room, some deniability.”

SYRIAN PRECEDENT

Israel’s bombing in 2007 of what the CIA described as a North Korean-built reactor in Syria may provide a precedent.

According to a source familiar with the operation, Israel carried out the sortie alone, but only after “letting the Americans know that something like this could happen. It’s the difference between informing, and seeking consent.”

It was the United States which, a year later, published the allegations about the bombed site, pitting its clout as a superpower against Syrian denials. Israel, which has never discussed the attack, was spared the burden of proving its case.

As both Obama and Netanyahu head new governments, the Israeli former general said any joint strategy would go unformed at least until the leaders held their first summit on May 18.

“There’s a sense that no decision has been made on either side,” he said. “My impression is that the current American statements are for the record, to convince the international community about the seriousness of the Obama administration’s efforts to talk Tehran into a solution.”

Regardless of Obama’s eventual stance, it would be severely tested should U.S. interests be threatened — say, with Iran answering an Israeli bombing by goading Shi’ites in Iraq to stoke the embers of their insurgency, or by choking off oil exports.

“Whatever temporary sense of solidarity with Israel that ensued would be through gritted teeth,” said Fitzpatrick, a former U.S. State Department official.

Then again, drawing in the United States, with its superior air power, could serve Israel’s endgame of putting paid to Iran’s nuclear facilities. Most analysts think Israel’s warplanes might set back Iran’s plans by a few years at best and could never erase the knowledge of Iran’s atomic scientists.

After reacting to the 1981 Iraq strike by saying — according to then-National Security Adviser Richard Allen — “You know what, Dick? Boys will be boys!,” Reagan rapped Israel by holding up a shipment of F-16 jets.

Future U.S. administrations would thank the Israelis for denting the might of Saddam Hussein — whom the Reagan White House backed against Iran at the time.

Fitzpatrick said U.S. public opinion would swing in Israel’s favor “if Iran is stopped from achieving a nuclear weapons capability, and the price is not too great in terms of attacks on American citizens and facilities.”

Obama’s punitive options could, in theory, include cutting the billions in U.S. defense aid and loan guarantees to Israel, though he would face opposition in an Israel-friendly Congress.

Washington could also call for a nuclear-free Middle East as part of a regional peace drive, arguing that, with Iran neutralized and the Arab world mollified, Israel’s own assumed atomic arsenal should no longer go unchecked.