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This morning on the Today Show, they outed a few democrats who accepted campaign contributions from companies that received bailout money. Granted, they made the republicans look worse by showing a couple who had taken MUCH MORE than the democrats, but they mentioned democrats also. They let Barney Frank state that it would be a conflict of interest for him to take contributions from those companies.

Anyway, I wonder if the democrats mentioned, like Harry Reid, are responsible for opposing some of the socialist initiatives in the Obama budget that was talked about at the FAQ press conference. (see Socialism 101)

more on this later …

So our president and his Treasury secretary want to expand Federal powers. They want the ability to step in to large, non-financial businesses, renegotiate their contracts, restructure the organization, and liquidate “toxic” assets.

They want this power, they say, so that companies like AIG who are “too big to fail” won’t take taxpayer dollars and turn around and hand out millions in incentive bonuses.

What they “claim” they want to do is to step in when a company doesn’t pass their “risk assessment”, and perform the aforementioned steps. They have the recommendation for the go-ahead from Federal Reserve chairman Ben Bernanke.

Ummmm … Is there anyone else out there who is concerned about this blatant power grab attempt by the executive branch? There is NO REASON on this earth why they need to have this power. After all, the things they want to do are things that COULD have been accomplished LAST YEAR, if they had kept their mitts out of things and let AIG file for chapter 11. YES, FOLKS, the good people in DC, who declared last year that allowing AIG to file for bankruptcy protection under chapter 11 would cause the entire world financial system to collapse NOW want to perform the same tasks that AIG management could have done WITHOUT sucking up 200 BILLION (with a B) taxpayer dollars.

Yes, under chapter 11, they could have liquidated bad assets, renegotiated contracts, and restructured the organization to streamline its operation. The short term financial pain would have been greater, I’m sure, but we would likely be recovering NOW and not listening to the president try and ram a conversion to a more socialist state down our throats in the name of “rescuing the economy”.

Kinda gives a new (and very frightening) meaning to the phrase “We’re from the government, and we’re here to help.”

AKA, OBAMA POLICY FAQ.

Watching the Presidential press conference tonight, I was reminded of the FAQ section of many of the websites out there. You know, you’ve seen them … They are those advertising bullets disguised as questions that people ask about the product or service …

Question: “Can I use Tide on my permanent press?” Answer: “Of course! Tide is your ONE SOURCE laundry detergent for everything from your unmentionables to your delicates.”

Question: “Can I use Tide in cold water?” Answer: “Of course! You can use Tide in hot, warm, or cold water, and it will clean just as effectively because of our super secret superior formulation”

He started off with a statement about what all he’s done to effect the recovery of the “deepest financial crisis since the Great Depression”

He then addressed the AIG fiasco, including appropriately controlled outrage (feigned, I’m sure)…

He then reiterated the importance of passing the budget as written, although he later said that he realizes that congress doesn’t just Xerox and sign the budget that he wrote, so that they all could go home …

When asked whether he would sign it without two key elements, he declined to answer the question… He provided an answer, but did not answer the question.

Remember these elements, folks, as you will soon notice a familiar theme in every instance where he gets in front of a camera …

1. health care reform to make entitlement programs more efficient … (remember Soylent Green)

b. reduce deficit by half by the end of his first term (he can do this by bringing about 100,000 troops home from iraq)

IV. cap in trade, which ushers in a new energy era, and prices pollution… (you can call it whatever you want, but it boils down to an energy tax. Come on, do you REALLY think that businesses that have high energy usage will not pass this pollution tax on to the consumer / end user? You do? I’ve got some swampland in Florida for you …)

D. invest in education … this is important to keep those 25 teachers and 15 police officers working through the remainder of his term. He likes to remind us that he kept those teachers and police officers employed with the 900 Billion dollar (Billion with a B) giveaway, aka the economic stimulus package, which we ALL KNOW is just a HUGE pork barrel.

>. invest in infrastructure … I honestly think he has no clue what this means, but like so many executives, he tosses it about because it SOUNDS COOL.

Then came the Q&A session. This was really the meat and potatoes of the FAQ session.

The question dealt with how to pare down the military budget, while maintaining the safety of our country and also of the troops, and without cutting VA programs. The president then reminded us that he is INCREASING funding for the VA (to show his support for the military), and still managed to find a spare 40 Billion with a B dollars by making the procurement process a bit more efficient. That 40 Billion with a B dollars might come in handy for either paying the AIG bonuses for next year, or for clearing up the Obama Cabinet’s tax issues. Either way, it goes back in to the federal coffers to be doled out when he needs to boost his popularity again…

Anne Compton … hard nosed whitehouse reporter, asked him about race and whether it has come up in any of the committee meetings or discussions that he has had with congress or his cabinet or heads of state, or if his first 64 days been relatively colorblind ….

Way to go Anne, nice hard hitting question to the president … was that question a plant to make sure that Obama talked about how very concerned he is about the state of the economy?

There was another softball question, this one about embryonic stem cell research…He mentioned how he wrestled with this issue but feels he’s doing the right thing by lifting the ban on embryonic stem cell research. He’s all about doing the right thing, you know.

He was asked about his pledge to bring peace to the middle east, and how likely is it now that the Palestinians don’t want a two state solution, and the Israeli prime minister insults Arabs … He gave a good answer without saying a damn thing, but managed to plug all of his taglines in his answer…

health care reform to make entitlement programs more efficient

reduce deficit by half by the end of his first term

cap in trade / new energy era / prices pollution

invest in education

invest in infrastructure

and said that just as we can have hope for a future of prosperity, we can have hope for a peaceful middle east …
That tells me that we will see NEITHER during his administration … Let me translate for you …
We have as much chance of having a prosperous future as we have chances for peace in the middle east. Remember, we are dealing with Orwellian terms here. Leftist politicos tend to prefer things that way.