SURRENDERING SOVEREIGNTY

By DICK MORRIS

While all eyes were on the rantings of Ahmadinejad at the United Nations, the United States -- under President Barack Obama -- was surrendering its economic sovereignty at the G-20 summit. The result of this conclave, which France's President Nicolas Sarkozy hailed as "revolutionary," was that all the nations agreed to coordinate their economic policies and programs and to submit them to the International Monetary Fund (IMF) for comment and approval. While the G-20 nations and the IMF are, for now, only going to use "moral suasion" on those nations found not to be in compliance, talk of sanctions looms on the horizon. While the specific policies to which the U.S. committed itself (reducing the deficit and strengthening regulatory oversight of financial institutions) are laudable in themselves, the process and the precedent are frightening. We are to...

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COMING: THE ECONOMIC "W"

By DICK MORRIS & EILEEN MCGANN

What will be our economic trajectory? How will we do as we come out of the recession of 2008-2009? There are those foolish optimists who predict a "V" shaped recovery - the swift crash will be followed by a buoyant surge. Others, more sober, believe in a "U" - the crash will gradually ease and slowly be followed by gradually increasing growth. Pessimists see an "L" - the crash will be followed by a long period of stagnation and no growth. I believe a "W" is more likely. Foreign stimulus (e.g. China) will rekindle export markets for American manufacturing and government lending will start the housing industry. But consumer demand, which accounts for 70% of America's growth, will continue to be stagnant in the face of high unemployment and lingering fears. The rebound will be short-lived and followed by a further downturn, the second part of the "W". But this second dip will be accentuated by inflation. We will face, not the stagflation of the 70s, but depressflation, negative growth and high inflation simultaneously. Unfortunately, the policies that would cure one condition will only..... READ MORE.

"There is a time for all things, a time to preach and a time to pray, but those times have passed away. There is a time to fight, and that time has now come."
--Peter Muhlenberg, from a Lutheran sermon read at Woodstock, Virginia, 1776

U.S. holds hush-hush talks with Cuba

Ex-Democratic fundraiser gets 24 years

Senate panel rejects public option twice

By Jennifer Haberkorn

Democrats defect in large numbers, complicating reform

In a long-awaited fight that pitted Democrats against one another, liberal lawmakers failed twice Tuesday to insert a government-run health insurance program into the emerging Senate health care reform bill but vowed that the battle for a public option is far from over.

Liberals seek health-care access for illegals

By Stephen Dinan

Democrats give demands

Fearful that they're losing ground on immigration and health care, a group of House Democrats is pushing back and arguing that any health care bill should extend to all legal immigrants and allow illegal immigrants some access.

The Democrats, trying to stiffen their party's spines on the contentious issue, say it's.....

ACADEMIC STANDARDS

"For progressives in the Age of Obama, setting high academic standards is secondary to the self-improvement of the 'whole child' and 'service' to the cause of social justice. Out: readin', writin' and 'rithmetic. In: rappin', revolution and radicalism."
--columnist Michelle Malkin

AFTERTHOUGHTS.......

"America is 233 years old. Some think that there are ample accomplishments speaking to our character and cause that predate Obama's ascension to the presidency. Feh, Obama seems to be saying. Look instead to our new greatness, for we have elected a man like him! Having anointed himself America's vindicator and redeemer, Obama's real purpose seems to be to become the leader not of the free world but, simply, the world."

--columnist Jonah Goldberg

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SHAMELESS CONCEIT

"President Obama's speech to the United Nations has been called naive and even 'post-American.' It was something else, as well: the most extravagant excursion into self-worship we have yet seen in an American leader. Beware of politicians who claim to be 'humbled by the responsibility the American people have placed upon me.' It's a neon sign flashing the opposite. And sure enough, in almost the next sentence, the president allowed that 'I am well aware of the expectations that accompany my presidency around the world.' Really? The whole world pulses with hope and expectation because Obama is president? People in Amsterdam, Sao Paulo and Taipei have a spring in their step because an Illinois Democrat won the White House?"

--columnist Mona Charen

Read all of it here.

"Absolute power corrupts even when exercised for humane purposes. The benevolent despot who sees himself as a shepherd of the people still demands from others the submissiveness of sheep. The taint inherent in absolute power is not its inhumanity but its anti-humanity."
--American author Eric Hoffer (1902-1983)

"The urge to save humanity is always a false front for the urge to rule it."
--American writer H. L. Mencken (1880-1956)

"Governments do not govern, but merely control the machinery of government, being themselves controlled by the hidden hand."
--English Prime Minister Benjamin Disraeli (1804-1881)

LEFT WING EXTREMISTS

"House Speaker Nancy Pelosi berated town hall and tea party protesters this month, tearfully warning they'd incite violence. Well, there's been violence all right, at Pittsburgh's G-20. But it wasn't the tea partiers. It takes gall to characterize ordinary Americans, freely exercising their rights of speech and assembly in civic forums, as 'mobs' while ignoring a pack of leftist thugs now smashing a U.S. city. But that's what Pelosi did, directing her righteous tocsin to the Norman Rockwell-like gatherings of Americans who opposed her expansion of government this past summer. 'I have concerns about some of the language that is being used because I saw ... I saw this myself in the late '70s in San Francisco,' Pelosi said, choking up, her eyes brimming with tears. 'This kind of rhetoric is just, is really frightening and it created a climate in which we, violence took place and ... I wish that we would all, again, curb our enthusiasm in some of the statements that are made,' she told a congressional forum Sept. 17 in a bid to silence peaceful protesters. Scroll ahead one week to the G-20 summit in Pittsburgh: Some 1,000 hooded rioters descend on the city waving signs such as 'Smash the G-20' and 'Eat the Rich.' Many take 'direct action' to 'challenge capitalism' in what organizers brazenly call an 'unpermitted protest.' Unlike the town hall citizens, they didn't 'hurl' statements -- just tire irons, bricks and rocks, in an effort to damage private businesses. ... This kind of violence is nothing new. It was found in Seattle in 1999, where former Obama administration green czar Van Jones got himself arrested. It was repeated at other summits in Turin, Italy; Washington, D.C.; and London. These leftists detest capitalism, abhor private property -- and have ties to the Democratic Party. The unwillingness of the Democratic establishment to defend free markets emboldens the rioters. In destroying private property and impeding trade, these anarchists prove their aims aren't democratic. They resemble the mobs of Castro's Cuba who engage in violence against citizens to enforce conformity. The outrage of it all raises questions about Pelosi's real agenda in her one-sided criticism of tea partiers. By criticizing only tea partiers and ignoring rampant thugs, she seeks to repress peaceful dissent. With that setup, it's no surprise that there's a mudslide of violence now rolling down on us from an energized radical left." --- Investor's Business Daily