Silicon Investor (SI) -- The First Internet Community

STOCKTALK

We've detected that you're using an ad content blocking browser plug-in or feature. Ads provide a critical source of revenue to the continued operation of Silicon Investor. We ask that you disable ad blocking while on Silicon Investor in the best interests of our community. If you are not using an ad blocker but are still receiving this message, make sure your browser's tracking protection is set to the 'standard' level.

Politics : Formerly About Advanced Micro Devices -- Ignore unavailable to you. Want to Upgrade?

To: Alighieri who wrote (579099)	8/2/2010 8:32:01 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1572194

ONGRESSMAN AT TOWN HALL: ‘THE FEDERAL GOVERNMENT CAN DO MOST ANYTHING IN THIS COUTRY breitbart.tv

To: Alighieri who wrote (579099)	8/2/2010 9:00:13 AM
From: longnshort	Respond to of 1572194

Patty Murray announces $44 Million to fix Howard Hanson Dam. seattletimes.nwsource.com According to publicola.net, Murray this year secured 191 earmarks valued at $223 million. She told The Columbian’s editorial board: “If you opt out of fighting for the regional investment, it’s not like the budget gets reduced by any amount of money. There’s a number of senators who are quite happy to have our region opt out of those local investments.” columbian.com

To: Alighieri who wrote (579099)	8/2/2010 10:23:28 AM
From: tejek	Read Replies (1) \| Respond to of 1572194

Obama So Far: Good Job! By Richard Reeves LOS ANGELES -- This is about what I think, expressed cleverly by another columnist, Froma Harrop of the Providence Journal: "When the pollster calls and asks whether I think the country is going in the right direction, I will say 'no.' When she asks if I approve of the job Congress is doing, I will say 'no.' And when she follows up with a question on President Obama's performance, I will answer: 'Sometimes good, sometimes bad. The guy drives me nuts at times.' "But when they ask whether I want Republicans to take back Washington, I'll respond: 'Are you out of your mind? We're still recovering from their last round of debauchery -- their fiscal irresponsibility, servility toward Wall Street, disrespect for science, contempt for the environment.'" Harrop says she is a "reasonable woman," who does not care about ideology. And she adds that many voters must agree with her. Well, I do, even if I do care about ideology. Then, she says: "Republicans doubled the national debt under Bush. Perhaps they'd like to triple it the next time." Actually, they have already done that: The national debt tripled during the administration of Ronald Reagan. He made his career by attacking "tax and spend" Democrats. Then he invented "tax and borrow" Republicanism. That was certified as party dogma when Vice President Dick Cheney told President George W. Bush: "Reagan proved deficits don't matter." President Obama may have driven pundit Harrop a bit nuts last week. "You know, sometimes these pundits, they can't figure me out," the president said, campaigning in Kansas City, Mo. "They say, 'Well, why is he doing that? That doesn't poll well.' Well, I've got my own pollsters, I know it doesn't poll well. But it's the right thing to do for America." That presidential "insight" was reported a day later, when The New York Times ran the headline "Obama Pushes an Agenda Without an Eye on Polls," over an analysis by Sheryl Gay Stolberg. His mistake, it seems, was doing what he said he would do when he campaigned for the presidency. The Times analysis focuses on Obama's devotion to his agenda to the point that he ignored the immediate concerns of much of the nation: "The political context has changed around him. Today, with unemployment remaining persistently near double digits despite the scale of the stimulus program and the BP oil spill having raised questions about his administration's competence, Mr. Obama's signature legislation is providing ammunition to conservatives who argue that government is the problem, not the solution. What Mr. Obama and his allies portray as progressive, activist government has been framed by his opponents as overreaching and profligate when it comes to the economy." If you happen to think Obama is a reasonable man, you are impressed that he can survive at all in the current political context. His presidency and campaigns are and will be about a fundamental American question: What is the role of government? Obama has shown what he thinks it is, as Stolberg wrote: "Mr. Obama has done what he promised when he ran for office in 2008: He has used government as an instrument to try to narrow the gaps between the haves and the have-nots. He has injected $787 billion in tax dollars into the economy, provided health coverage to 32 million uninsured and now, reordered the relationship among Washington, Wall Street, investors and consumers." That would look great to many -- and will to history -- without context changers like stubborn unemployment, suggesting fundamental changes in the economy that Obama and the rest of us do not yet understand, and the damned oil spill. That context changer is an example of how much hypocrisy the electorate can tolerate and pundits can understand. The same people who are attached to Reagan's line that the government is the problem, that we need less government outreach, are the people who have been attacking Obama for not doing enough in the Gulf. Personally, I think the guy, the president, is doing a pretty good job in ominous times. I will repeat that if any pollster wants to call. realclearpolitics.com

To: Alighieri who wrote (579099)	8/2/2010 11:04:10 AM
From: one_less	Read Replies (2) \| Respond to of 1572194

Will Washington's Failures Lead To Second American Revolution? By ERNEST S. CHRISTIAN AND GARY A ROBBINS Posted 07/30/2010 06:30 PM ET The Internet is a large-scale version of the "Committees of Correspondence" that led to the first American Revolution — and with Washington's failings now so obvious and awful, it may lead to another. People are asking, "Is the government doing us more harm than good? Should we change what it does and the way it does it?" Pruning the power of government begins with the imperial presidency. Too many overreaching laws give the president too much discretion to make too many open-ended rules controlling too many aspects of our lives. There's no end to the harm an out-of-control president can do. Bill Clinton lowered the culture, moral tone and strength of the nation — and left America vulnerable to attack. When it came, George W. Bush stood up for America, albeit sometimes clumsily. Barack Obama, however, has pulled off the ultimate switcheroo: He's diminishing America from within — so far, successfully. He may soon bankrupt us and replace our big merit-based capitalist economy with a small government-directed one of his own design. He is undermining our constitutional traditions: The rule of law and our Anglo-Saxon concepts of private property hang in the balance. Obama may be the most "consequential" president ever. The Wall Street Journal's steadfast Dorothy Rabinowitz wrote that Barack Obama is "an alien in the White House." His bullying and offenses against the economy and job creation are so outrageous that CEOs in the Business Roundtable finally mustered the courage to call him "anti-business." Veteran Democrat Sen. Max Baucus blurted out that Obama is engineering the biggest government-forced "redistribution of income" in history. Fear and uncertainty stalk the land. Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke says America's financial future is "unusually uncertain." A Wall Street "fear gauge" based on predicted market volatility is flashing long-term panic. New data on the federal budget confirm that record-setting deficits in the $1.4 trillion range are now endemic. Obama is building an imperium of public debt and crushing taxes, contrary to George Washington's wise farewell admonition: "cherish public credit ... use it as sparingly as possible ... avoiding likewise the accumulation of debt ... bear in mind, that towards the payment of debts there must be Revenue, that to have Revenue there must be taxes; that no taxes can be devised, which are not ... inconvenient and unpleasant ... ." Opinion polls suggest that in the November mid-term elections, voters will replace the present Democratic majority in Congress with opposition Republicans — but that will not necessarily stop Obama. A President Obama intent on achieving his transformative goals despite the disagreement of the American people has powerful weapons within reach. In one hand, he will have a veto pen to stop a new Republican Congress from repealing ObamaCare and the Dodd-Frank takeover of banks. In the other, he will have a fistful of executive orders, regulations and Obama-made fiats that have the force of law. Under ObamaCare, he can issue new rules and regulations so insidiously powerful in their effect that higher-priced, lower-quality and rationed health care will quickly become ingrained, leaving a permanent stain. Under Dodd-Frank, he and his agents will control all credit and financial transactions, rewarding friends and punishing opponents, discriminating on the basis of race, gender and political affiliation. Credit and liquidity may be choked by bureaucracy and politics — and the economy will suffer. He and the EPA may try to impose by "regulatory" fiats many parts of the cap-and-trade and other climate legislation that failed in the Congress. And by executive orders and the in terrorem effect of an industrywide "boot on the neck" policy, he can continue to diminish energy production in the United States. By the trick of letting current-law tax rates "expire," he can impose a $3.5 trillion 10-year tax increase that damages job-creating capital investment in an economy struggling to recover. And by failing to enforce the law and leaving America's borders open, he can continue to repopulate America with unfortunate illegals whose skill and education levels are low and whose political attitudes are often not congenial to American-style democracy. A wounded rampaging president can do much damage — and, like Caesar, the evil he does will live long after he leaves office, whenever that may be. The overgrown, un-pruned power of the presidency to reward, punish and intimidate may now be so overwhelming that his re-election in 2012 is already assured — Chicago-style. • Christian, an attorney, was a deputy assistant secretary of the Treasury in the Ford administration. • Robbins, an economist, served at the Treasury Department in the Reagan administration. investors.com