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Archive - February 2009 News Headlines, Links, and Comments
For more recent news headlines than February 2009, refer to the
News Highlights page.
An explanation of this news
archive feature follows at the end of the page.
The
reverse chronological headlines below link to February 2009 news
reports, mostly from the AP as published on
www.Breitbart.com , with our own
comments and some links to related pages for more details.
Refer
to our Conservative Search and other
tools to find news and comments from many sources. We have also
set up a special Tea Party Search Tool
for websites related to the Tea Party movement.
February 28. 2009 - Obama's budget: huge ambitions, huge obstacles -
Comment: Hopefully this budget plan will face insurmountable
obstacles if Republicans get organized and hang together. Even the
U.S. Chamber of Commerce now seems to be having some doubts about his
real ambitions.
February 28, 2009 - After bitter split, unions try to heal deep wounds
- Comment: Labor unions are moving to take advantage of the "most
favorable political climate for unions in 15 years". It's not just
about the "card check" issue (getting rid of secret ballots in
unionization efforts - known by the Orwellian euphemism of the proposal
in Congress called the "Employee Free Choice Act").
February 26, 2009 - Under Obama's plan, tax burden shifts to the wealthy
- Comment: Don't believe it. This will kill job creation
and business investment in this country. Capital will flow out, as
it has in other countries where populist regimes have tried to fund all
of their programs by targeting the "rich". In the end, they just
destroy the prosperity of everyone. All taxes go up, and spending
does too.
February 26, 2009 - Economists wonder: Rosy Scenario makes a comeback
- Comment: Duh. By the time that most people figure out
that it is deceptive, all the spending programs will all have been
pushed through already, and we'll have to figure out after 2010 how on
earth to pay for it. More taxes on the "rich" will never be enough
- even if the taxes were 100% of income. This is a con, like
another government Ponzi scheme
in which future income is assumed to cover all of the high payouts now.
February 24, 2009 - Fact Check: Obama glosses over complex realities
- Comment: Wow. Even the AP figured this out. The
spin didn't leave everyone as giddy and dizzy as during the campaign.
For example, note the promises of big savings over 10 years - not the 4
for which he is really accountable.
February 24, 2009 - Obama vows to lead US from dire 'day of reckoning'
- Comment: The focus is on health care "reform" (not tort
reform as one way to lower medical insurance costs), more education
spending, and investment in alternative energy initiatives (while
quietly blocking offshore drilling, etc.). Remember the "not one
more dime" promise of no new taxes if earning under $250,000.
Watch - this is all just political cover for the next spending moves on
the budget and other initiatives in the weeks ahead.
February 24, 2009 - Obama calls for carbon cap regulation - Comment:
If mankind produces anything, even hot air, then government officials
can justify regulating and taxing it, and spending billions for
academics as well as expanded regulatory agencies to study and manage
it. What a concept. See the notes below about Al Gore's
significant stake in all this (February 19 and
February 14).
February
24, 2009 - No terror talk: Homeland Security head's new tone -
Comment: Yes, why can't we all be friends, like Carter and
Hamas? They all want peace - the piece called Israel, that is.
We were all so much happier before 9/11 reminded us that the world
remains a very dangerous place. Remember - "It's the economy,
stupid"? All this foreign stuff distracts from the domestic power
agenda.
February 22, 2009 - EU leaders back sweeping financial regulations
- Comment: The EU is moving forward with Angela Merkel's vision of
global financial market regulation as we warned during the
World Economic Forum event in
Davos. Watch out for the European Council meeting in March and the
Group of 20 (G-20) summit in April, which Obama will attend in London..
February 21, 2009 Gov. Sebelius, Kansas GOP fight over health care -
Comment: Is she looking to step in for Daschle? What
track record does she bring to that role? Is this another case of
putting alleged "good intentions" and "attempts" to be bi-partisan ahead
of demonstrable performance, while basically pushing the party's agenda
for the nationalization of health care, Daschle-style.
February 21, 2009 - Yet to see combat, stealth fighter in budget war
- Comment: Why am I not surprised? Like Carter and Clinton before
him, this will be the first place Obama looks for budget cuts. As
pointed out in the article, this budget line item is $523 million and
affects 100,000 jobs. Compare that to the billions which just got
crammed into social programs which shouldn't even be in the federal
budget.
February 20, 2009 - www.GOP.com
A Disappointing Month - Republican National Committee press
release reviewing the first 30 days of the Obama administration and the
new Congress.
February 20, 2009 - Obama warns mayors not to waste stimulus money -
Comment: Yes, they should leave that up to Obama and the
Congress. They can blow trillions, but mayors have to act
responsibly and implement his national social agenda, or else they will
be called to account. Anybody else remember the 10th Amendment in the
Bill of Rights? The state and local governments are the ones who are
supposed to have the real power so that there is more real
accountability to voters for the decisions they make, not the distant
federal government politicians and bureaucrats. This is dangerous.
Update February 20: LaHood's talk of mileage tax nixed
- White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said "It is not and will not
be the policy of the Obama administration". Oops, yet another
gaffe.
Comment: Interesting rant about the mortgage bailout plan, as
traders react to the idea of hosting a "Chicago Tea Party" protest in
July.
Rick Santelli seems to recognize that this is just another transfer
of wealth from responsible people.
Refer to the
Chicago Tea Party page to follow more news about this story.
See the
reaction on the
CNBC Stock
Blog about the "Chicago Tea Party" idea, which was in response to
comments by Wilbur Ross, Jr. about consumer leveraging as a "giant
Ponzi scheme". By 10pm that evening, after an
online poll was added to the blog, there were over 61,000 responses,
with 91% voting yes to join the tea party. By midnight,
it was over 90,000 votes, and 92% said yes. By 10am Friday, it was
approaching 190,000 votes, and 93% yes.
CNBC soon pulled that poll and the results off their
website, and Rick Santelli chose not to get involved in the actual Tea
Party movement which volunteers quickly launched that week - rather than
on July 4 as he had suggested. The general view among the
organizers was that we couldn't afford to wait that long, given the
rapid pace of the very costly changes which the new Congress was
seeking.
February 19, 2009 - Reid: Senate to take up climate change this year
- Comment: Note the moves to kill any offshore drilling. After
slipping many billions into the stimulus bill (see Feb. 14 statement by
Al Gore below), they're going to wait until the summer to talk about
global warming. After all, this has been a pretty harsh winter for
many Americans, so they would rather push other spending priorities now.
February 19, 2009 - Clyburn: Opposition to stimulus is slap in face
- Comment: Absolutely. It's a slap in a face to those
socialists in Washington who want to impose their ideas on states by
trying to circumvent and undermine the authority and values of governors
and legislatures through federal bribes. Clyburn and Holder may be
playing the race card as proxies for Obama now that he is facing growing
criticism for his actions, but the real blowback will come in 2010.
Voters will remember this.
February 18, 2009 - GOP governors consider turning down stimulus money
- Comment: Note how Clyburn has tried to circumvent the
authority of state governors by enabling legislatures to go around them.
Does anybody still believe in the Tenth Amendment? States need to be a
check on federal power. If they become too reliant on federal funding
and the strings attached, then power is being ceded to the federal
government. This is extortion and political blackmail, not economic
stimulus.
February 18, 2009 - Obama to unveil $75 billion mortgage relief plan
- Comment: The next move is this "Homeowner Stability Initiative".
There's also a further $400 billion investment by Treasury ($200 billion
each) into the
losses at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on all of those subprime loans
which the Democrats pushed. Details are promised by Tim Geithner
on March 4.
February 17, 2009 - Obama wants stimulus to transform schools -
Comment: The next bite of the apple - to make local school districts
even more reliant on federal funding, oversight, and meddling.
That shifts power away from local school districts to union lobbyists in
Washington and state capitals. It gives the new Secretary of
Education (from Chicago) billions of dollars and few strings on how to
use it.
February 16, 2009 - Government pension agency braces for recession -
Comment: If companies fail, guess who potentially gets stuck
with the pension costs? It has an $11 billion deficit already, and
many corporate pension plans are now underfunded in the context of the
financial market decline.
February 15, 2009 - Pentagon unaware of drone base in Pakistan -
Comment: For those of you who don't read the Dawn newspaper in
Karachi, Pakistan on a regular basis, this article and related coverage
from a relatively moderate Pakistani perspective may be of interest.
Other Pakistani media coverage may be far more critical.
Dianne Feinstein seems to have really put her foot in her
mouth this time, and yet she is usually savvy and careful to avoid doing
so. That makes one wonder whether this was a deliberate move to
jeopardize what has been a controversial but demonstrably successful
Bush program against terrorists hiding in Pakistan's FATA regions.
Refer also to the
Counterterrorism Blog news of Feb. 13 on this topic.
This is eerily reminiscent of the
Church Committee launched as Democrats came to power in the mid
1970's. They proceeded to investigate and weaken the CIA and other
intelligence capabilities under Carter. Is this "leak", and the
recent Leon Panetta appointment, a move to trigger such a "bipartisan
study" and expand intelligence oversight in Congress as a stealth way to
limit covert capabilities again?
After all, once any controversial allegations become public,
won't the media demand that Congress investigate? Won't media
reporters now race to figure out and report where the Predators are
coming from, perhaps blowing the cover and personal safety of
individuals who have been killing terrorists for us? Where is the
righteous outrage which accompanied the Plame story? This could
jeopardize lives.
This would add to all the allegations about "rendition", prisoner
interrogation, FISA warrants, etc. It may help to create the
political drumbeat that Congress and Obama must "do something", as the
Church Committee and Carter did. Their actions set the stage for many
alleged "intelligence failures" in much the same way as Congress
has helped
to create the current real estate and banking sector crisis.
February 14, 2009 - US Congress approves stimulus in major win for Obama
- Comment: Note that Al Gore regards $31 billion as just at "downpayment"
for fighting climate change. As another Democrat said, this is just "the
first bite of the apple" as the regular budget cycle begins. Expect
spending to quickly spiral out of control for one illusory crisis or
fairness justification after another.
February 14, 2009 - Statement by Former Vice President Al Gore,
Chairman of the Alliance for Climate Protection, on Final Congressional
Passage of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 -
Comment: Note that Gore just regards the billions in this bill as a
"downpayment". This is just the first crack in the levee before a flood
of other federal spending creates a needless global disaster.
February 13, 2009 - The recovery plan: shock and awe for a shaken nation
- Comment: Shock, yes. Awe, no. Audacity and arrogance, yes. This is
the first improvised explosive device on
the road to serfdom. This bomb may do considerable damage, but we
will soon come back and defeat the liberal insurgents. We are not the
"loyal opposition". We will liberate the country again from this latest
threat of tyranny by stealth as more Americans wake up to perceive that
threat.
February 12, 2009 - GOP leaders criticize White House role in Census
- Comment: Didn't they also slip an extra $1
billion into the stimulus bill to fund changes at the Census Bureau,
before this move to the White House was revealed? What has happened to
that in the latest conference "deal"? This is a move to politicize the
Census process. What next? Fund ACORN to be a subcontractor for Census
work to estimate the population in depressed urban areas as reliably as
their voter registration work?
February 12, 2009 - Congress, Obama clear way for huge stimulus -
Comment: Remember when Obama promised "sunshine" transparency for
all legislation to be posted on the Internet for 5 days before signing?
How convenient that he exempted "emergency" legislation - like the
stimulus. This is being rammed through as fast as they can, before more
Americans wake up to the national health care initiatives from Daschle
and other outrageous details which some Senators openly think Americans
don't care about. This is just the first improvised explosive device on
the road to serfdom by this liberal insurgency in America.
February 11, 2009 - Louisiana Governor to give GOP response to Obama
speech - Comment: State governors and
local officials need to stand up for the rights of individuals as
provided by the 10th Amendment. Excessive reliance by states on federal
money with coercive strings attached is a threat to the ability of
states to serve as a check on the growth and abuse of federal power.
February 11, 2009 - Key lawmakers reach deal on $789 billion stimulus
bill - Comment: Watch for the fuzzy
math about jobs "created or saved" - while completely ignoring how many
jobs could be created in the private sector with an investment of $789
billion (not to mention the other trillions in the latest bailout
initiatives). This also assumes that all of the regular government
spending (with more to follow) has no positive impact on job creation or
retention. This is the road to serfdom. This is just the first roadside
bomb blast in this liberal insurgency
February 10, 2009 - The Influence Game - Key lawmakers in stimulus
dilemma - Comment: Remember, it's the low-income housing
advocates who helped to create this mess through Fannie Mae and Freddie
Mac and Congressional pressure on banks to make subprime mortgages at
unsustainably low interest rates. It's shameful that the US Chamber and
NAM are favoring this monstrosity, presumably to curry favor with the
new leadership in DC in the hope of getting more favorable treatment on
other issues if they support this, and no influence if they resist it.
Spineless cowards. Conservatives should remember this. These business
lobbying groups are no better than the unions or others. They are not
looking out for the interests of the country as a whole. They are
looking out for their own power in DC.
February 7,
2009 - "We are all socialists now" - cover story of Newsweek,
Feb. 16 edition, with various related stories. Comment:
This liberal insurgency needs to be defeated. The solutions will not be
found through Washington. They will be found in states and cities where
there is more direct accountability for performance in government.
February 5, 2009 - from
FactCheck.org (Annenberg Center) Campaign 2010 Begins - Comment:
Report on the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee already
launching misleading attack against against 28 Republican members of the
House of Representatives. They couldn't wait to try to put these
members of Congress on the defensive already as the new Congress started
to work.
Explanation
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Note
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