Almost Half of New Americans in 2008 Were Latino

Washington (AP) - Hispanics made up nearly half of the more than 1 million people who became U.S. citizens last year, according to a Hispanic advocacy group.

Obama Names Pope-Basher to Faith-Based Initiative Board
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama has named to the federal government’s faith-based initiative a gay-rights activist who last month described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as “discredited leaders” because of their opposition to same-sex marriage. Harry Knox, who is a newly appointed member of Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is the director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual activist group.

Treasury Secretary Geithner May Replace CEOs of Bailed-Out Banks

Washington (AP) - The government may require new faces in executive suites at banks requiring "exceptional assistance" in the future, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner said Sunday.

WHAT? THEY DON'T SPY ON US?

Russian TV Accuses U.S. of Spying on Russia, China

Bishkek, Kyrgyzstan (AP) - A documentary on Russian state television has accused the U.S. of using an air base in Kyrgyzstan to spy on Russia and China -- an allegation a spokesman for the base flatly denied on Monday.

The film, aired Sunday on the Rossiya TV channel, showed a building it said was used for electronic surveillance and identified a woman it said worked in the U.S. Embassy as a CIA agent.

U.S. Must Work with Pakistan to Stop al Qaeda, Gen. Petraeus Says
Washington (CNSNews.com) – Gen. David H. Petraeus, who heads the Army’s Central Command, advised members of the Senate Armed Services Committee that Pakistan is now home base for al Qaeda and should be the focus of U.S. attention. Petraeus, who serves as the overall commander for troops in Iraq and Afghanistan, said the additional forces made available by President Obama’s strategy to deal with Afghanistan “will not by themselves be sufficient to achieve our objectives.”

Obama’s Afghanistan Strategy is Indecisive, Says Vice Chair of Senate Intel Committee
(CNSNews.com) - President Barack Obama is demonstrating indecisiveness in his strategy for the war in Afghanistan, said Sen. Christopher "Kit" Bond (R-Mo.), vice chairman of the Senate Intelligence Committee. Bond said he thinks the White House is split on whether they will choose to pursue a counter-terrorism strategy in Afghanistan, which Bond said would be less likely to succeed, or a counter-insurgency strategy, which he said could result in victory.

Return N. Korea to Terror-Sponsor List, Invest in Missile Defense, Lawmakers Say
(CNSNews.com) – U.S. lawmakers are pressing for a determined unilateral U.S. response, including returning Pyongyang to a list of terror-sponsoring states and stepping up investment in missile defense. As anticipated, U.N. Security Council members China and Russia urged “restraint” Sunday as the decision-making body held urgent talks following the launch.

Obama Unsettles Europeans With Comments Supporting Membership for Muslim Turkey in European Union
(CNSNews.com) – President Obama’s warm reception in Europe took a chilly turn Sunday after some leaders took issue with his support for Turkey’s aspirations to join the European Union. Speaking ahead of his arrival in Ankara late Sunday for his first visit as president to a Muslim country, Obama urged E.U. leaders in Prague to move ahead with E.U. membership for Turkey.

The Song of Kim Jong Il

The condemnations will probably soon become concessions.

Obama's NK Reaction: More Talks

John Bolton Says Barack Obama's Reaction to the North Korean Missile Launch Sends the Wrong Signal to Israel and Iran - WSJ.com

The president sends the wrong messages to Israel and Iran. 

By JOHN R. BOLTON

Prior to North Korea's launch yesterday of a Taepodong-2 ballistic missile, President Barack Obama declared that such an action would be "provocative." This public statement was an attempt to reinforce the administration's private efforts to urge the Democratic Peoples' Republic of Korea (DPRK) not to fire the missile.

That effort failed, as have countless other attempts to deal softly with Pyongyang. Incredibly, U.S. Special Envoy for North Korea Stephen Bosworth revealed -- just a few days before the launch -- that he was ready to visit Pyongyang and resume the six-party talks once the "dust from the missiles settles." It is no wonder the North fired away.

Hamas turns to Chinese rockets over homemade: 'We need weapons that work'

GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime has elected to deploy Chinese-origin extended-range rockets for attacks against Israel.

Former Iran minister sees imminent threat to mullah regime from youth, the economy

TEL AVIV — Former Iranian Justice Minister Mehdi Haeri Khorshidi described life in today's Iran and said the mullah regime in Teheran is on the verge of collapse.

Missile launch for dummies; Given the economy who besides Japan really cares?

SEOUL — Call it a success or failure, North Korea's launch on Sunday of a long-range missile, supposedly carrying a satellite that failed to go into orbit, demonstrates conclusively Pyongyang's ability to deliver a warhead to a distant target.

In that sense, the latest version of the Taepodong-2 accomplished what North Korea had wanted — and also bore out United States, Japanese and South Korean charges of violating United Nations resolutions adopted in 2006 when the North entered the ranks of the nuclear powers by testing a small warhead.

The UN Security Council this time is not about to enforce the previous resolutions, much less adopt a meaningless statement of "condemnation". The council, after three hours of closed-door palaver on Sunday, failed to agree to anything after calls for restraint by both China and Russia, North Korea's only friends and one-time Korean War allies.

THE DECLARATION OF INDEPENDENCE HAS BEEN REPEALED

By DICK MORRIS

On April 2, 2009, the work of July 4, 1776 was nullified at the meeting of the G-20 in London. The joint communiqué essentially announces a global economic union with uniform regulations and bylaws for all nations, including the United States. Henceforth, our SEC, Commodities Trading Commission, Federal Reserve Board and other regulators will have to march to the beat of drums pounded by the Financial Stability Board (FSB), a body of central bankers from each of the G-20 states and the European Union.

The mandate conferred on the FSB is remarkable for its scope and open-endedness. It is to set a "framework of internationally agreed high standards that a global financial system requires." These standards are to include the extension of "regulation and oversight to all systemically important financial institutions, instruments, and markets...[including] systemically important hedge funds."

Note the key word: "all." If the FSB, in its international wisdom, considers an institution or company "systemically important", it may regulate and over see it. This provision extends and internationalizes the proposals of the Obama Administration to regulate all firms, in whatever sector of the economy that it deems to be "too big to fail." Read it all.

News Headlines - Obama to ease Cuban travel, financial restrictions

The Obama administration intends to allow Americans to visit relatives in Cuba and send money back to their families on the communist island nation, senior U.S. officials said Saturday.

News Headlines - Taliban threaten 2 attacks per week in Pakistan

A suicide bombing at a crowded Shiite mosque south of Pakistan's capital killed 22 people Sunday, the latest evidence of how security in the U.S.-allied nation is crumbling well beyond the Afghan border region where al-Qaida and Taliban fighters thrive.

The violence came as a senior Pakistani Taliban commander said his group was behind a deadly suicide bombing Saturday night in Islamabad and promised two more attacks per week in the country if the U.S. does not stop missile strikes on Pakistani territory.

Austin Hill : Is Barack Obama The "Moral Alternative" To Capitalism?

Who ever imagined that in the year 2009, the President of the United States and the protesters who sought to disrupt the G-20 Summit would actually agree on something?

“Capitalism is immoral” was one of the phrases scrawled on several of the banners carried outside the summit meetings this past week. And although he has never said this in so many words, indeed President Obama would seem to be in lock-step with that assertion, or at least with the sentiment that the assertion entails.

SOUNDS LIKE HE WAS DESCRIBING BARACK OBAMA

"Did you ever know a politician that was not 'facing the most critical time in the world's affairs' every time he spoke in public?"

 --humorist Will Rogers

www.washingtonexaminer.com

NKorea launches rocket, defying world pressure

By JEAN H. LEE
Associated Press

North Korea defiantly carried out a provocative rocket launch Sunday that the U.S., Japan and other nations suspect was a cover for a test of its long-range missile technology.

Liftoff took place at 11:30 a.m. (0230GMT) Sunday from the coastal Musudan-ri launch pad in northeastern North Korea, the South Korean and U.S. governments said.

Japan immediately called for an emergency session of the U.N. Security Council.

The multistage rocket flew over Japan and landed in the Pacific Ocean, the Japanese broadcaster NHK said, citing its government. FULL STORY.

Free Enterprise On Death Watch

by Michael Reagan

America as we know it is being destroyed by a president determined to bring it down so he can rebuild it in his own image...

The Global Double Standard

What's Good For The Goose Isn't Good For The Gander

By Herbert London

One might assume that standards which prevail on one part of the globe might be applied equally to another part of the world. One might assume as well that what is good for the goose might be good for the gander. Well you might assume that, but in contemporary life you would be wrong. Some behavior tacitly and vehemently accepted by radicals within the Islamic community is rejected when applied by others.

According to erstwhile president Jimmy Carter, Israeli checkpoints on the Gaza border designed to forestall terrorism are an example of “apartheid.” However, the former president has not said a word about Saudi Arabian policy that bars non-Muslims from Mecca and from holding Saudi citizenship.

Muslims in the White House?
BY GARY BAUER

There is a tinge of hypocrisy in the Left’s desire for faith-based hiring. I remember the hyperventilating in Washington when it was learned that the Bush administration made an effort to hire graduates of Regent University Law School, which was founded by Pat Robertson.

The liberal blogosphere blew up, citing it as yet another example of Bush subordinating ability to politics in hiring decisions. Reporters were aghast to discover that the school’s mission is to provide “Christian leadership to change the world.” They mocked the university for having the temerity to teach that man’s law ought not to preclude God’s law. Leftwing groups warned that America was on the verge of a theocracy and that the “separation of church and state” was under assault.

I’m not hearing much concern about the “separation of mosque and state” today from those groups. Of course, according to the Left, it is preferable to have ardent Muslims in the White House than it is to have believing Christians. Read the entire column here.

HUMAN EVENTS Exclusive Interview with Gen. Richard Myers

by Jed Babbin

Former Chairman of the Joint Chiefs of Staff talks about the lessons of Vietnam and why ending state sponsorship of terrorism is the sine qua non of peace.

THIS MAY BE ECONOMICS 101 MATERIAL, BUT ...

It's a good reminder:

"Ask the average person which is the correct answer to the following question: Which president gave the biggest tax cuts for the rich -- Reagan or Bush? I would bet the rent money that you would not get the correct response, which is: Presidents have no taxing authority. Article I, Section 8 of the U.S. Constitution says: 'The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes, duties, imposts and excises.' ... Another tax question: If there's an imposition of a property tax on your land, who pays the tax? I guarantee you that land does not pay taxes; only people pay taxes. That means a tax on your land is a tax on you. You say, 'Williams, that's pretty elementary, isn't it?' But what do you say to a politician or news media people who propose increasing corporate taxes as means to get rich corporations to pay their rightful share of government? They should be told that they speak nonsense because corporations, like land, do not pay taxes; only people pay taxes. If a tax is levied on a corporation, and if it is to survive, it must raise the price of its product, or lower dividends or lay off workers. In each case, it is people, not some legal fiction called a corporation, who bear the burden of any tax levied on the corporation. An important subject area in economics called tax incidence says that the entity upon whom a tax is levied does not necessarily bear the burden of the tax. Some of the tax burden can be shifted to another party. That's precisely what corporations do and as such they are merely government tax collectors."

--George Mason University economics professor Walter Williams

Ronald Reagan understood this:
"The most dangerous myth is the demagoguery that business can be made to pay a larger share, thus relieving the individual. Politicians preaching this are either deliberately dishonest, or economically illiterate, and either one should scare us. Business doesn't pay taxes.... Only people pay taxes, and people pay as consumers every tax that is assessed against a business. Begin with the food and fiber raised in the farm, to the ore drilled in a mine, to the oil and gas from out of the ground, whatever it may be -- through the processing, through the manufacturing, on out to the retailer's license. If the tax cannot be included in the price of the product, no one along that line can stay in business."

"The liberties of a people never were, nor ever will be, secure when the transactions of their rulers may be concealed from them."

--Patrick Henry

WHAT THE HELL HAPPENED?

"The powers delegated by the proposed Constitution to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the State governments are numerous and indefinite."

--James Madison

David Roche Says Easy Credit Fueled the Financial Crisis in Eastern Europe - WSJ.com

As a rule, middle-class societies newly liberated from dictatorship generally go on a credit binge that ends in tears. It's like giving a released prisoner a limitless credit card -- a spending spree is sure to ensue. That's what happened in Asia and Latin America in the past, and what more recently happened in the former "Eastern Bloc" nations of Europe.

Unlike past examples, however, the credit binge in Eastern Europe has been in foreign currencies, with Western European banks or their subsidiaries extending most of the foreign.....

HOW CONGRESS CAUSES BANK FAILURES

Forget AIG, Family Banks are Actually Thriving in U.S.

Why did some banks and financial institutions fail and others succeed? There are many reasons, but one common ingredient of those that have not failed is that they are organized as partnerships and/or are controlled by a family, or are closely held by a few senior officers. That is, they have "skin in the game."

The oldest and largest partnership bank in the United States is Brown Bros. Harriman & Co., which was formed in 1818 and is a premier financial institution. Brown Bros. has weathered the financial crisis just fine because it is not overleveraged and did not take foolish risks because the partners were not playing with shareholders' money - they risk their own money every day. Banks that are partnerships are called private banks because their stock is not held by the public.

Michelle Malkin : Obama Census Plan: No Illegal Alien Left Behind

I have seen the electoral future, and it is rigged. With fraud-prone, ideologically driven interest groups swarming the census-gathering process, the left is solidifying its chances of a permanent ruling majority. Lax immigration enforcement is the not-so-secret key to the Democrats' power grab. And the Obama administration is all too happy to aid and abet.

Hugh Hewitt : Obama's New GM

I'd like to know where to file my application to become one of the president's appointees to join the remade Board of Directors of General Motors. I don't know a lick about making or selling cars, but I think I have a pretty persuasive case to make for membership nonetheless.

Obama Wants to Control the Banks

Barack Obama Maintains Control Over Banks By Refusing to Accept Repayment of TARP Money - WSJ.com

There's a reason he refuses to accept repayment of TARP money.

I must be naive. I really thought the administration would welcome the return of bank bailout money. Some $340 million in TARP cash flowed back this week from four small banks in Louisiana, New York, Indiana and California. This isn't much when we routinely talk in trillions, but clearly that money has not been wasted or otherwise sunk down Wall Street's black hole. So why no cheering as the cash comes back?

New York's Budget Targets the Golden Eggs

David Paterson's New York Budget Fails to Deliver Fiscal Responsibility - WSJ.com

Gov. Paterson came into office with a different attitude.

After a strong rhetorical start, the governor failed to deliver a budget tailored to the new fiscal realities he had preached. While the Albany Times Union on Dec. 16 quoted a gubernatorial aide predicting an "aggressive set of cuts" that would leave "blood in the streets," Mr. Paterson's December budget proposal called for a 1.1% increase in spending, with little in the way of significant restructuring, consolidation, or downsizing. He called for 137 new or increased taxes, fees and fines totaling $4.1 billion, hitting energy bills and health care as well as consumer items.

Obama's Attack Machine

Kimberley Strassel Says the Attempted Political Assassination of Eric Cantor Reveals What the Left Fears Most - WSJ.com

The thing about fear is that you can see it. For an insight as to what the left today fears most, witness its attempted political assassination of Eric Cantor.

"When a business or an individual spends more than it makes, it goes bankrupt. When government does it, it sends you the bill. And when government does it for 40 years, the bill comes in two ways: higher taxes and inflation. Make no mistake about it, inflation is a tax and not by accident."

--Ronald Reagan

"The ideal tyranny is that which is ignorantly self-administered by its victims. The most perfect slaves are, therefore, those which blissfully and unawaredly enslave themselves.

A truth's initial commotion is directly proportional to how deeply the lie was believed. It wasn't the world being round that agitated people, but that the world wasn't flat.

When a well-packaged web of lies has been sold gradually to the masses over generations, the truth will seem utterly preposterous and its speaker a raving lunatic."

-- author Dresden James

Invasion of the Corporate Snatchers

By Cal Thomas:

The plot of the 1956 cult classic "Invasion of the Body Snatchers" seems remarkably similar to the storyline of the Obama administration, which is invading, and appears eager to take over, corporate America.

LENO HUMOR

Jay Leno:

The Obama administration asked General Motors CEO Rick Wagoner to step down, and he agreed. This is good news for Obama; the last time he tried to get someone to quit, it took months -- and even then, he had to promise her a job as secretary of state.

****

According to the government, Rick Wagoner was forced to resign because of poor performance. That's embarrassing -- run an organization that loses billions of dollars and then get fired by a guy who heads up an organization that loses trillions of dollars.

****

Obama also said if you buy a new car, you will able to deduct the sales tax from your income tax. Or you can just take a job at the White House and you wouldn't have to pay taxes at all.

****

President Obama said this week that things will get worse before they get better. That's something you never hear before the election -- "Let me tell you, if I'm elected it's going to get a lot worse."

WHAT IS A SOCIALIST?

"A socialist is somebody who doesn't have anything, and is ready to divide it up equally among everybody."

-- George Bernard Shaw

ENOUGH IS ENOUGH

"The financial markets are sluggish, but they are functioning. It's time to wind down the bailouts -- and get the federal government out of the way."

-- Ed Feulner, president of the Heritage Foundation

A NIX ON CAPITALISM

"If you listen to the principal spokesmen for U.S. economic policy -- Obama and Geithner -- they grow daily ever more explicitly hostile to the private sector and ever more comfortable with the language of micromanaged government-approved capitalism -- which, of course, isn't capitalism at all."

--columnist Mark Steyn

POWER GRAB

"We are seeing the biggest power grab by politicians in American history. The idea that they would propose that the Treasury could intervene and take over non-bank, non-financial system assets gives them the potential to basically create the equivalent of a dictatorship."

--former Speaker of the House Newt Gingrich

A BIG PART OF THE PROBLEM - BUT IT WON'T BE ADDRESSED

"[W]hy isn't Obama's special auto task force ordering a replacement for Ron Gettelfinger, the UAW's president? Weren't their oversized pay and benefit packages a big part of the problem? Well, that's never gonna happen. The election power of the union is too strong. But this does reveal the political nature of these government bailout operations."

--economist Lawrence Kudlow

UNIONS NOW RUNING THE COUNTRY?

Labor Union to Obama: Fire Bank of America CEO
(CNSNews.com) – President Barack Obama forced the ouster of the General Motors chairman, and now he must fire the Bank of America CEO, a labor union insists. The Service Employees International Union is circulating an online petition, telling Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner to get rid of Ken Lewis.

"The spirit of encroachment tends to consolidate the powers of all the departments in one, and thus to create whatever the form of government, a real despotism. A just estimate of that love of power, and proneness to abuse it, which predominates in the human heart is sufficient to satisfy us of the truth of this position."

--George Washington

Pakistan under Zardari lurching from crisis to crisis

BY HUSSAIN, S. AMJAD
toledoblade.com --

There is a relative breakdown of law and order in parts of [Pakistan]. Kidnappings for ransom, some carried out by the Taliban and some by criminal elements, are rampant. This insecurity has had an adverse effect on the economy, and were it not for the infusion of U.S. aid, the country would be bankrupt. And then there is the ongoing menace of religious violence.
READ MORE.

Homeland Security Frees 27 Illegal Immigrants, Sends Them Back to Work
Fox News

Uproar over Chinese drywall; Floridians say it's making them ill and hurting home values

Chinese drywall complaints: Florida residents claim the imported wall board is damaging property and causing health problems

South Florida Sun-Sentinel.com
Homeowners claim the drywall is causing health problems, including nosebleeds, headaches and sore throats.

D.C.'s money-saving plan: Free inmates

Up to 80 percent could qualify to leave prison early
Washington Times

University of Maryland student union to screen porn film
Baltimore Sun

X-rated films on campuses

Schools find redeeming value in pornography
Washington Times

Poll: Dodd's Approval Numbers Drop to New Lows

Hartford, Conn. (AP) - U.S. Sen. Christopher Dodd's standing with Connecticut voters continues to plunge as a new poll released Thursday shows only one in three people approve of his job performance.

The Quinnipiac University survey also says the five-term veteran would lose his seat to either of two declared Republican challengers if the election were held today -- even though many people admitted they don't know much about either challenger.

Cap and Trade Legislation Would Kill Coal Industry, Congressman Says
(CNSNews.com) - “This cap-and-trade scheme may not just reduce Illinois coal jobs further – it is my worry that this legislation aims to kill the entire coal industry,” Rep. John Shimkus (R-Ill.) told CNSNews.com. Shimkus and Rep. Shelly Moore Capito (R-W.Va.) held a press conference Wednesday to rally opposition to the cap and trade proposals, which they said would lead to both higher energy costs and severe job loss in the coal mining industry.

Obama's Own Report on GM Says Plan to Build Non-Gas-Burning Car Would Not Save Company
(CNSNews.com) – A White House report on General Motors says the company’s restructuring plan will not lead to a sound company, in part because the beleaguered auto giant’s proposal to rely more heavily on advanced, fuel-efficient cars is not commercially viable. The report’s findings stand in stark contrast with the President’s chief goal for America’s auto industry: leading the world in green car production.

This is hilarious

Hamas couldn't fire smuggled Stingers against Israelis due to embedded ID system

GAZA CITY — The Hamas regime acquired U.S.-origin air defense systems but was unable to use them in combat. Read more.

'Keeping Score': Chicago politics moves into the White House

Karl Rove, Wall Street Journal

"Don't think we're not keeping score, brother." That's what President Barack Obama said to Rep. Peter DeFazio in a closed-door meeting of the House Democratic Caucus last week, according to the Associated Press.

A few weeks ago, Mr. DeFazio voted against the administration's stimulus bill. The comment from Mr. Obama was a presidential rebuke and part of a new, hard-nosed push by the White House to pressure Congress to adopt the president's budget. He has mobilized outside groups and enlisted forces still in place from the Obama campaign. Read more.

G20 funny money: IMF plan would create cash, pass it to any/all regimes

Wall Street Journal

If the G-20 leaders meeting in London this week have one goal, it is to find a way to reflate the global economy with the least political cost. As bad luck would have it, the International Monetary Fund is standing by to help. Read more at WSJ.

Iran native copied, transferred nuclear software while employed at largest U.S. reactor

WASHINGTON — Iran has gained access to U.S. nuclear power plants and detailed knowledge of their operations. Continue reading.

Goodbye U.S. sovereignty, hello globalocracy

With the nomination of Harold Hongju Koh, the Dean of Yale Law School, as the Legal Adviser for the State Department, President Barack Obama is putting a world government team in place under Secretary of State Hillary Clinton. The other key appointment was Anne-Marie Slaughter, the dean of Princeton University’s Woodrow Wilson School of Public and International Affairs, as Director of Policy Planning at State. Slaughter wrote the 2004 book, A New World Order, and believes in an international system dominated by the U.N. and other global institutions and networks. Continue reading.

U.S. commanders admit uncertainty over security in Iraq after pullout

U.S. commanders admit uncertainty over security in Iraq after pullout
BAGHDAD — The U.S. military has expressed concerns over the prospect of major deterioration in security in mid-2009.

Officials said U.S. military commanders have warned that a withdrawal of American ground forces from major Iraqi cities in July 2009 could result in a sharp decline in security amid a campaign financed by former Saddam exiles in Syria. Continue reading.

Is This the End of Capitalism?

Hardly, but it's a great excuse for the antiglobalization crowd.

Daniel Henninger Says Blaming Capitalism for the Crisis Overlooks the Housing Bubble

Heads of state, perplexed finance ministers, inflated retinues and journalists from 20 nations arrived in London yesterday to address "the greatest financial crisis since the Depression." By 4 p.m. London time today they will hold a press conference and go home.

Is there any chance we can adopt this system for Congress? Read more at WSJ.com.

A Spanish Judge Opens Criminal Case Against Six Americans, Including Alberto Gonzales, Douglas Feith and David Addington

Here's the match-up. In the right corner we have Omar al-Bashir, for 20 years the Islamist dictator of Sudan and the man most responsible for the death of hundreds of thousands of Darfuris. In the left corner we have six former Bush Administration officials who were given the task after September 11 of formulating America's response to the atrocities. Who do you think is in the greatest legal jeopardy? More at WSJ.com.

Holman Jenkins Says Barack Obama Will Not Send GM into Bankruptcy and Risk Upsetting the UAW

Keep that in mind amid the defenestration of Rick Wagoner, who was not as popular with UAW Chief Ron Gettelfinger as Mr. Wagoner's replacement, Fritz Henderson. Keep that in mind amid reports the administration favors a "quick and surgical" bankruptcy. It's a bluff. The same administration that inserted itself into GM's corporate governance to order the resignation of a CEO is hardly likely to defer to the prescribed legal order for a failing company, namely bankruptcy. Even a "prepackaged" filing runs too much risk of a judge imposing more "sacrifice" on the UAW than the administration is prepared to tolerate.

GM bondholders understand this: They've been intransigent precisely because they calculate the UAW is too important to Democratic electoral politics for Mr. Obama to risk losing control of the reorganization process to a bankruptcy judge.  Read more at WSJ.com.

Michelle Malkin : The Shut Up and Swallow Congress

Deliberation in Washington is dead. We don't have legislators. We have lemmings. We don't have debates. We have high-speed hysteria sessions. After ramming through stimulus legislation that no one read and bailout bills that no one understood, Congress is now poised to stuff down taxpayers' throats a deficit-exploding $3.5 trillion budget that enshrines the largest tax increase in American history.

Welcome to the cap-and-trade crap sandwich.

Walter E. Williams : Our Problem is Immorality

Most of our nation's great problems, including our economic problems, have as their root decaying moral values. Whether we have the stomach to own up to it or not, we have become an immoral people left with little more than the pretense of morality. You say, "That's a pretty heavy charge, Williams. You'd better be prepared to back it up with evidence!" I'll try with a few questions for you to answer.

OBAMA'S WORST JOBS-KILLER

 By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

More than anything else, business needs a predictable environment if it is to create jobs.

Changes in the regulatory environment and the tax code make it almost impossible for businesses to make investments.

Yet President Obama seems to ignore this reality. Each day's news brings another bold and far-reaching proposal to change the fundamentals of the US economy.

And each time he indulges his personal ideology with such a pronouncement, businesses all over the world cut back on their planned investment until the dust settles.

Most incredible was the fact that he chose the middle of a deep recession to announce a major tax-code overhaul. Read more.

Obama Putting Our Tax Dollars On Auto Pilot

Major media pushed for bailout billions when many knew it was throwing good money after bad.

By Dan Gainor
The Boone Pickens Free Market Fellow
Business & Media Institute

If you were alarmed about the outlandish growth of government power, doubt no longer. Barack Obama just fired the head of a private company. The March 30 Wall Street Journal headline said it all: “Government Forces Out Wagoner at GM.” And several more bosses are likely to fall as Obama throws them to the mob. Read more.

Liberals Complain, CNBC Caves In

"Given the state of the economy, financial networks have come under increasing scrutiny. CNBC specifically has been attacked for its pro-investment point-of-view, but after a few weeks of harsh criticism the network seems to be making a big, left turn."

Read about it at The Balance Sheet.