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To: koan who wrote (96858)	4/22/2009 2:44:15 PM
From: benwood	Respond to of 116555

I agree that he's doing some good things. And... it's status quo with some far bigger things. So far.

To: koan who wrote (96858)	4/22/2009 2:48:59 PM
From: Little Joe	11 Recommendations Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

"Obama is reversing the Bush policies just as fast as he can." That is a joke right. lj

To: koan who wrote (96858)	4/23/2009 8:53:58 PM
From: Broken_Clock	2 Recommendations Respond to of 116555

"Obama is reversing the Bush policies just as fast as he can." As I said to you before, O is not reversing, but expanding Bush policies. Theft, military spending, illegal wiretapping, etc. ===== TARP, The Criminal Enterprise? Published: Thursday, 23 Apr 2009 \| 11:28 AM ET Text Size By: Larry Kudlow Anchor Is the whole TARP plan a criminal enterprise? Sounds farfetched, I suppose. But after reading about Special Inspector General Neil Barofsky’s report, it may well be that TARP is just one big criminal problem. Listen to this: Barofsky’s investigators reported Monday that they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax-law violations, insider-trading, and mortgage-modification fraud related to TARP. Yup, those are criminal probes. Barofsky is the special IG overseeing the bailout program. And for some reason the mainstream media refuses to report this on the front pages where it belongs. Barofsky’s report spans 247 pages. And it says that the very character of the bailout program makes it “inherently vulnerable to fraud, waste and abuse, including significant issues related to conflicts of interest facing fund managers, collusion between participants and vulnerabilities to money laundering.” By the way, one of Barofsky’s recommendations is for Treasury to abandon its whole plan of buying toxic assets from banks and investors. The IG’s report also notes that what started last October as a single-purpose $750 billion effort to buy toxic securities has morphed into twelve separate programs that cover up to $3 trillion in direct spending, loans, and loan guarantees. In other words, TARP is nearly equal in size to the entire federal budget. Now, Geithner & Co. has said very little about this. Even in yesterday’s TARP oversight hearing, very little was said about the Barofsky critique. That’s too bad, because this is a crucial area of investigation. TARP is badly in need of reform - or maybe better yet, badly in need of termination. Think about this: TARP, which is now linked to substantial criminal activity, has ballooned to the size of a second federal budget and represents the biggest government-directed intrusion into the economy in history - vastly bigger than the New Deal. And not only is there TARP for banks, insurance companies, and non-bank financial institutions, but also for GM, Chrysler, and various auto suppliers, and perhaps soon enough for credit cards, newspapers, and other sectors of the economy. This is why I believe the era of democratic free-market capitalism is coming to an end. It is being replaced by state-directed corporatism on a grand scale. This is central planning that goes way beyond the American tradition. Now we will wait and see if the investigative process for TARP turns into a judicial process, and whether this criminal enterprise puts the long arm of the law onto specific, individual criminals. Questions? Comments, send your emails to: lkudlow@kudlow.com © 2009 CNBC, Inc. All Rights Reserved cnbc.com

To: koan who wrote (96858)	5/2/2009 12:57:58 PM
From: Yulya	1 Recommendation Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 116555

Obama has embraced many of the same positions that liberals and Obama himself criticized. For example: * Obama and members of his administration have embraced the use of rendition. Many of Obama’s most ardent defenders blasted progressives who criticized Obama on rendition as jumping the gun. Today, their arguments look even more problematic than in the past. * Obama has invoked the maligned “state secrets” defense as a complete bar to lawsuits challenging potential human rights and constitutional law violations. * Obama has argued that detainees at Bagram Air Force Base in Afghanistan do not qualify for habeas corpus rights, even though many of the detainees at the facility were not captured in the war or in Afghanistan. * Even though it no longer uses the phrase “enemy combatants,” the Obama administration has taken the position that the government can indefinitely detain individuals, whether or not they engaged in torture and whether or not they fought the United States on the “battlefield.” This logic combined with the denial of habeas to detainees in Afghanistan could make Bagram the functional equivalent of Guantanamo Bay. If the New York Times article is accurate, then the use of military tribunals issue will join the list of policies that Obama has endorsed, despite the loud liberal criticism that Bush received when he did the same things. dissentingjustice.blogspot.com