Some folks think I'm too mean
towards Obama.  They think I
should be more supportive of
his administration and of our
government in general.  That I
should embrace the historical
nature of his presidency.  I
have one thing to say to that...

NUTS!

I support many aspects of our
government.  Mainly those
hard-working, non-political
types who protect America and
help it to function.  But when
it comes to our elected officials
and those they appoint, well
that's where I draw the line.

Sure, Obama's election was
historic.  Much of what he has
done thus far is historic.  In-
cluding his recent nomination
of Sonia Sotomayor to sit on
the Supreme Court.  After all,
why not have a person on the
highest court of the land who
could not sit on a jury since
she's so emphatic and could
not hear evidence objectively?

Obama, and the Democrats in
Congress, are spending money
in historic levels.  People com-
plained when Bush would turn
in a budget deficit of $400
Billion dollars.  Obama's first
budget is pegged at $1.7 Tril-
lion dollars!  And that's only if
his own rose-tinted projections
occur.  Already, they ain't.

After two consecutive quarters
of losing about 6% GDP each,
the economy is clearly in de-
cline.  Unemployment has
doubled since prior to the
Democrats taking back Con-
gress in November, 2006.
The IRS now reports that
tax revenues are off some
44% from last year!  So I
think it's fair to say that the
projections for Obama's 1st
year budget deficit will exceed
$2 TRILLION dollars, easily.

And that's just his FIRST year!
By the end of his first term of
four years, Obama will have
doubled, and probably more
than doubled, the National
Debt.  He'll overspend more
than every single president
since George Washington,
cramming 218 years of fiscal
irresponsibility into 4 years.
And we haven't even gotten
yet to his plans to nationalize
health care!

Another historical first for
Obama is that, thanks to all
this runaway spending, our
national bond rating will pro-
bably be downgraded from
the Triple-A status it has had
since bond ratings were con-
ceived in 1917.  Some analysts
predict America will be lowered
to Double-A by the end of this
year, and, if Obama continues
his spending ways, be down
to 'junk-bond' status within 10
years.

This will make servicing our
National Debt far more ex-
pensive.  Interest rates will
rise, impacting the rest of the
economy.  Already, many
nations, like China, who were
financing our debt, have
stopped buying our Treasury
bonds, particularly the long-
term notes, such as the 10
year, which helped keep our
interest payments on the
National Debt tolerable.  China,
and others, are currently only
buying short-term notes, which
pay a higher interest rate.

While I do not blame Obama
for General Motors going bank-
rupt, it should be noted that
this will be the largest bank-
ruptcy in history.  Since some
of you want Obama to be a
historic president, I think it's
fair to mention that this, too,
will be part of his legacy.  
Especially since his admini-
stration is playing such a huge
role in the terms of the bank-ruptcy.

In both the Chrysler and GM
bankruptcies, Obama and his
minions are aiding the UAW
in getting more power.  He
has even disregarded legal
precedent by downgrading
the status of secured bond
holders for both companies.
Instead of being at the front
of the line in getting compen-
sated for their investments
in the auto companies, the
secured bond holders are
being screwed by Obama.

But what else can one expect
from somebody who has no
use for the U.S. Constitution?
Why should centuries of con-
tract law matter?  Obama in-
stead wants empathy to be the
ruling principle, as it bends to
his whim.

So this year will be one for the
history books.  We shall see
many historic changes and
events which will shape our
nation's future.  None for the
better, in my opinion.

There is one good piece of
history I should mention.  The
Detroit Red Wings are facing
the Pittsburgh Penguins for
the second year in a row for
the NHL Stanley Cup Finals.
It's the first time in 25 years
that the two same teams are
facing each other in consecu-
tive seasons.  Now that's a
piece of history I can live with!

Watching the news is making
me feel like Mr. Gumby.  He's
the character from the old
BBC comedy show, "Monty
Python's Flying Circus", who
always says, "My brain hurts!"
To which, Dr. Gumby answers,
"Well Mr. Gumby, it will have to
come out then."  LOL!

Just this past week seems like
I've woke up and found myself
in some twisted, parallel uni-
verse.  Last week Thursday
was when President Obama
gave his national security
speech claiming to be person-
ally responsible for defending
the nation, and maintaining it's
morality.  He claims that it's no
big deal to transfer prisoners
from Guantanamo Bay to the
nation's 'super-max' prison for
safe keeping.  Unfortunately,
nobody told Obama that the
super-max facility in Colorado
has only one empty cell right
now.

Mr. Responsibility then went
on CSPAN Sunday and men-
tioned that we're out of money.
DUH!  No kidding we're out of
it, he's been spending it fast
enough.  Obama will double
the current national debt of
$11 TRILLION dollars in his
first term, and double it again
to $44 TRILLION by 2018.
And that doesn't include his
national healthcare program.

Oddly enough, the CBC re-
ported yesterday that the
national healthcare system
in Canada has a new scandal.
Two, in fact.  In Quebec, some
400 women were misdiag-
nosed with breast cancer,
which led to their receiving
the wrong treatments.  Fears
are that similar results are
more widespread in all of
Canada.

We hear Obama and his
minions often talk about how
we'll lower costs of medical
insurance if we digitize all
medical records.  The other
new scandal in Canada is
that the e-Ontario program
for putting medical records
on-line is extremely corrupt
and wasteful.  Millions of
dollars went to companies
without competitive bids and
many of these have done
little or nothing.  One contractor
received $200,000 for merely
cataloging news articles on
the healthcare system.

North Korea tested a nuke
and also launched more
missiles to flaunt their power.
They now insist that a state
of war exists between them
and South Korea.  Russia
has responded by activating
their Far-East anti-missile
system.  Huh?  I thought
the Russians didn't like anti-
missile systems?  Oh, not to
be out-done, Iran has deployed
warships into the Gulf.  Who
knows what they're going to
do next?

Back at home, Obama has
nominated to the Supreme
Court a woman with very
questionable legal skills and
even more questionable per-
sonal opinions.  But that really
doesn't matter much to him
as he's not a big fan of our
Constitution anyway.

And how I could possibly not
mention last Friday's presser
with Nancy Pelosi.  After being
caught fibbing about how the
CIA lied to her and Congress,
she is skirting her lies by just
refusing to talk about the sub-
ject anymore.  Our milk-toast,
corrupted media seems to be
going along, cutting her and
any other Democrat the slack
they would never have given
to a Republican.

All in all, this has been just
another crazy week in our new
crazy world of Obama Land.
Interest rates are climbing,
tax revenues are down and
the spending just keeps in-
creasing.  General Motors
will soon become Govern-
ment Motors as they prepare
to file bankruptcy.  Uncle
Obama Sugar will own 70+%
of the New GM, adding to
their ownership of the New
Chrysler.

Say what you want about
George W. Bush, at least he
was nice enough to only give
us one brain aneurysm at a
time.  Curious how that Iraq
War thing Obama campaigned
about seems to have been
shelved as it was reported yes-
terday that we may have to
keep troops there for another
10 years.  I suppose that's still
90 less years that John McCain
would've done.

So as I fumble to find my
Excedrin Migraine tablets
before my brain explodes, let
me leave you with this happy
thought.  Obama told a group
of Hollywood stars and money
types last night that, "You
ain't seen nothing yet."  Uh-
huh!  I think I'm going to need
either a bigger bottle of
Excedrin, or maybe something
stronger.

God bless Dick Cheney!
The former Vice President
gave a speech today where
he challenged the Obama
Administration positions on
national security policies.
Obama also gave a speech
today on the same subject,
starting late and going long,
possibly deliberately to re-
duce any media coverage of
Cheney's speech.  The con-
trasts between the two is
remarkable.

Obama spoke mainly on how
the Bush Administration mis-
handled the War on Terror.
He was critical of many of the
policies and decisions made.
Chief among them are the use
of enhanced interrogation
techniques at Guantanamo
Bay.  He referred to the
methods, such as 'water-
boarding' as torture and tried
to tie it's use to increased
hostility towards America.

Cheney defended the policies
as necessary to safeguard
America and to take the fight
to the terrorists themselves.
He recounted the horror of
the 9/11 attacks, of watching
people leap from windows of
the World Trade Center to
escape being burnt to death.
He again assured that the
information gleaned from
using enhanced Interrogation
of three 'high value' prisoners
helped thwart additional plots
to attack America.

Cheney has become more
vocal since Obama had
some documents declassi-
fied concerning the interro-
gation of Guantanamo
prisoners.  The former Vice
President has challenged
the Obama Administration
to release other documents
which detail the intelligence
gained from these interroga-
tions.  Thus far, the White
House has refused to make
these available.

Most notably of these plots
which were revealed was a
plan to crash airliners into
the Bank Tower, also known
as the Library Tower, in Los
Angeles, California.  There
is some dispute concerning
the timeline.  That the plot
was foiled or abandoned be-
fore the interrogations.  But
such did reveal details of the
plot, according to Cheney,
and overall, the methods
provided U.S. intelligence
personnel with valuable in-
formation and insights into
the inner workings of Al
Qaeda.

Obama countered in his
speech today that none of
the information acquired
during water-boarding and
other 'enhanced' techniques
use could not have been
gotten using 'normal' interro-
gation methods.  He further
added that our use of such
techniques, as well as the
mere existence of 'Club
Gitmo' (the nickname for
the prison on Guantanamo)
actually fueled more resent-
ment and helped recruited
more members to Al Qaeda
and the Taliban.  This also
has a timeline issue, since
the prison and interrogations
happened well after the
height of terror activities.

The bottom-line in all of this
is very simple.  The Bush
Administration policies for
fighting terrorism have proved
to have been effective as no
attacks have occurred since
9/11 in the United States.  In
addition, we now have a much
better understanding of the
workings and organization of
Al Qaeda, which was largely
ignored by the Clinton Admini-
stration despite several attacks
launched during the 1990s.

There is no doubt that we are,
or were, much safer since 9/11.
How much safer we are now or
in the future is more doubtful
as Obama takes us back to a
pre-9/11 mentality of treating
terrorism as merely a law en-
forcement matter.  Self-criti-
cism and apologies only fuel
the resolve of our enemies.

NBC, the National Broadcast-
ing Company, is no stranger
to committed fraud on TV.
You may recall the movie,
"Quiz Show", based on the
TV game show, "21".  On
the evening of Dec. 5, 1956,
the current champion of the
show, Herb Stempel, was
'scripted' to finally lose to
one Charles Van Doren.  Van
Doren then became the toast
of America, and was given a
spot on NBC's morning show,
"The Today Show".  By 1958,
stories of NBC fixing their
game show finally rose to the
forum of the U.S. Congress
which held hearings on the
public frauds.  On Nov. 2nd,
1958, Van Doren testified
against NBC himself and
admitted to being coached.
Congress then passed a law
prohibiting fixing game shows.

Another famous incident was
the NBC "Dateline" episode
where they faked a gas tank
exploding on a GM truck.  The
story distorted a legal case
against GM whom were being
sued for wrongful death.  NBC
technicians rigged the gas
tank to split open seconds
before a test crash.  The show
aired on Nov. 14th, 1992, but
it did not take long for the truth
to come out.  Private detectives
hired by GM tracked down the
hulk of NBC's test truck after
searching some 22 junkyards.
A scientific examination proved
that the gas tank had been
tampered with.

Fast forward to Sunday night's
finale of "The Celebrity Appren-
tice 2" which aired on NBC for
3 hours.  The series features
Donald Trump who has celebs
perform various tasks to raise
money for charities.  Each epi-
sode concludes with Trump
firing the least productive
celebrity.

That is, unless the least pro-
ductive has ties to the show's
host and producers.  Joan
Rivers faced off against Annie
Duke on Sunday's show.  A
rivalry had developed during
the series between these two
ladies, which was easily ex-
ploited for ratings.  However,
there may be more to the
story than just ratings.

In other episodes and seasons,
Donald Trump always was
very harsh to those who he
viewed to be 'quitters'.  Trump
has no stomach for those who
give up.  So, why did he allow
Joan Rivers to return to the
show after she walked off?
She had become outraged
when her daughter, Melissa,
was fired by Trump two epi-
sodes prior to the finale.
Melissa threw a temper tan-
trum and stormed off the set
after hurling abusive remarks
to the show's staff and other
contestants.  Joan also railed
against Annie Duke and
Brande Roderick, whom Joan
both blamed for Melissa's
firing.

The next episode, Joan returns
and continues the competition.
Why did Trump allow her to?
Why did he select her to ad-
vance to the finale?

The charity which Joan Rivers
was playing for is God's Love/
We Delivery, based in New
York.  They provide meals and
assistance to the ill and home
bound.  Joan is very active as
a member in the charity, having
served on their board in the
past.  In 1995, she served on
the board of directors alongside
Blaine Trump, socialite and the
sister-in-law of one, Donald
Trump.  Blaine is married to
'The Donald's' younger brother,
Robert.  Blaine currently serves
as Vice-Chair for the charity.

Hmmmm?  Are we talking a
possible conflict of interests
here?  Well stayed tuned, my
friendly 'stay-tuners'.  Because
there is one more minor issue.

Joan Rivers, who was fired
along with Melissa from the
TV Guide Network, will soon
have a new TV show on the
TV Land Network, produced
by none other than Mark
Burnett.  Burnett, who co-
produces "Apprentice" and
is the man who created
'reality TV' with his hit
series, "Survivor", will be
doing a new reality series
called, "How'd You Get So
Rich?"  The series will air
this fall on TV Land with
Joan as it's host.

So was Joan allowed to win
"Celebrity Apprentice 2" de-
spite failing to earn as much
cash for charities as Annie
Duke?  Annie raised some
$465K in the finale alone,
more than triple Joan's take
from their competing charity
auctions.  During the course
of the season, Duke raised
far more money and won more
challenges than any of the
other contestants.  She was
clearly the better player.

So, the question is, did NBC
allow another game show fraud
to be committed?  I would sug-
gest that an investigation is in
order, both from the U.S. Dept.
of Justice and the New York
State Attorney General at the
very least.  There appears to
be sufficient indicators that
there was a conflict of interest
with allowing Joan Rivers to
continue after quitting, and to
be awarded the victory of the
series despite failing to out-
perform Annie Duke on every
substantial level.

I happened to be flicking thru
the TV channels today and
came across that classic film,
"A Guy Named Joe".  There
was a particular scene which
impressed me.  The one where
Lionel Barrymore tells Spencer
Tracy about how one can mea-
sure their life by what they
leave for the future.

Colin Powell, former general
and leader of men, recently
made comments about how
the GOP was failing.  He cited
polls showing how American
citizens wanted national health
care and more from govern-
ment.  Well, NO KIDDING!
Of course people want more,
especially if they do not have
to pay for it!

And that is the nasty catch,
isn't it?  All of the wonderful
programs, new and old, that
the government provides for
us are not being paid for by
us, the current generation. Oh
sure, we pay for some if it.
Up until the last eight months
or so, we paid a reasonable
amount of it.  But not all of it.
We are leaving mountains
of debt to our children.

With Obama and the
Democrats on a spending
spree now, we are leaving
whole mountain ranges of
debt!  Obama will double
the existing national debt
in five years, and double
it again or more as his new
programs and policies linger
into the future.  There seems
to be no end to it, either, but
an end is inevitable.

America is currently trying to
find people to buy our debt to
the tune of $150 Billion dollars
PER WEEK!  In 2008, there
were about 50 major nations
and financial entities who would
buy and service our debt load.
Today, there are 16.  Major
purchasers, such as China, are
balking from buying anymore.

The situation has gotten to the
point where the Federal
Reserve and Treasury Depart-
ment are playing a shell game
of buying the debt from each
other.  But the reality is that
we are spending our way into
total ruin.  And the spending
is far from over as Obama
prepares to ram more entitle-
ment programs through a
willing Democrat-controlled
Congress.  This, despite the
fact that the current entitlement
programs, like Social Security
and MediCare, are on the
verge of collapsing, well before
they were expected to.

But who cares?  Why should it
bother us that the nation is
going bankrupt?  After all,
the impact will effect our child-
ren and future generations
more than us.  Oh sure, our
taxes will go up some and
the economy will suffer as
capital is funneled away from
investment.  True, more of
our generation will go thru
the uncertainty of holding a
job, but it won't be anywhere
as bad as employment will
be for our children!

Just look at Spain.  They enjoy
an unemployment rate of about
12%.  Obama wants to copy
their 'green-jobs' programs,
which cause 2.5 non-green
jobs to NOT be created
for each green-job.  And those
green-jobs that Spain does
create cost their government,
on an average, a mere $400
Thousand dollars each!  We
sure won't have to pay for
that.  Our children will!

It's bad enough that the
Democrats and their Pro-
gressive allies in the GOP
have already done such a
marvelous job of trashing
our education system.  I
consider this pure child
abuse.  The force feeding
and brain washing which
goes on daily in our
schools and universities
is absolutely appalling.

Saddling the future with
massive debt, and the con-
sequences of such, is just
as bad.  It is child abuse.

There is a word for it, extortion.
Over the past eight months,
we have seen a disturbing
trend coming out of Washing-
ton, DC.  We got a glimmer of
it when Bank of America CEO,
Ken Lewis, admitted to NY
State Attorney General
Andrew Coumo that BoA was
coerced into buying Merrill
Lynch.  Since then, rumors
have been circulating on how
other CEOs, of banks that were
not in peril, were forced to take
TARP money, or face lengthy
audits from the Treasury and
other government agencies.

This week the focus shifts to
the automobile industry.  GM
and Chrysler are in bankruptcy.
Chrysler, the weakest of the
'Big 3', had it's first day in court
today.  The Treasury is forcing
all of Chrysler's creditors to
accept a slice of a $2.25 Billion
dollar cash pie to write off $6.9
Billion in debts.  Most of the 42
creditors have agreed to the
proposal, and we may know
why now.  Those who aren't
have said that the White House
is threatening to publicly ruin
them via the press corps.  
HUH???

Those lenders who agreed all
have one thing in common,
they all accepted TARP funds.
Goldman Sachs, JP Morgan-
Chase, Citigroup, and others,
accepted the Treasury's offer
of 29% outstanding loans
to the troubled auto maker.
The holdouts, whom include
Oppenheimer Funds and
Stairway Capital, are fighting
for the 70% share they are
entitled to under the terms of
the corporate bonds they own.

Attorney Tom Lauria of White
& Case, who are representing
the dissenters, says that,
"We're just standing on the
law."  Lauria explains that the
issue at hand is how the pro-
posed Treasury  plan "inverts"
the standard bankruptcy code
where secured lenders are
paid in full first, followed by
lesser and unsecured lenders.
Laurie told the press on Friday
that, "What's happening is the
senior secured creditors are
going to get 29 cents on the
dollar and the unsecured
creditors are going to get $10
billion dollars."

The group of 20 dissenters
are holding about $1 Billion
dollars of Chrysler's debt.
President Obama scolded
the hedge funds and others
publicly, calling them out
for not making the same
sacrifices as others are. But
Tom Lauria told WJR's
Frank Beckman today that,
"One of my clients was
directly threatened by the
White House, and in essence
compelled to withdraw its
opposition to the deal under
threat that the full force of
the White House press corps
would destroy its reputation
if it continued to fight."  He
was referring to the firm,
Perella Weinberg, which
caved in on Thursday to
accept the Treasury Depart-
ment's deal.

Lauria went on to say that
his clients are not opposed
to rescuing Chrysler, but still
seek to be compensated under
the law.  He added that the $10
Billion dollars the Treasury
plans call for paying off all
creditors will probably turn out
to be closer to $20 Billion
based on documents filed
in the bankruptcy court.  He
also pointed out during the
interview on WJR that many
of those who are accepting
the 29% compensation had
bought Chrysler bonds which
only offered 30% return in
the event of a default. So how
could this "sacrifice", as the
Obama puts it, be the same or
be fair?

The overall plan for rescuing
Chrysler calls for the U.S.
government to obtain an 8%
stake in the company.  The
UAW will get a 55% stake
through stock equity transfer-
red to VEBA, a trust fund set
up by the UAW and the Big
3 during previous contract
negotiations to manage the
union employee health bene-
fits.  Daimler will give up its
20% stake and cough up
$600 Million a year for the
next three years to the
pension fund to walk away
from this disaster.  Fiat will
buy between a 20% to 35%
stake in the company.  The
current owner of Chrysler,
Cerebus Capital Manage-
ment, who had 80% of the
company, will get the re-
mainder.

Over the years, Chrysler
has shrunk to only about
39,000 employees in the
U.S., and about 15,000
in Canada.  A similar deal
is now being worked out for
General Motors to be re-
structured.  The UAW is
expected to get a 39%
stake in GM, with the Federal
government getting a sizable
slice, too.  Their financing
division, GMAC, will be taking
over Chrylser's auto loans
and financial services. Only
Ford Motor Company seems
to be in a healthy enough
shape for now to avoid a trip
to bankruptcy court.

The essence of all of this is
very disturbing, as the Federal
government continues to take
over and run rough shod over
major economic sectors.  The
banks, auto companies and
credit card industry are the
first to feel the heat.  New
regulations on the energy
industry and Federal health
care programs will radically
alter the landscape for
American businesses.

As I wrote last time, we appear
to be trotting down the path of
soft despotism.  The govern-
ment, in league with labor
unions, are coercing business
to bend to it's will.  The threat
of audits, legislation, and now
enlisting the media, are all
being applied to force firms
into submission.  How is any
of this different than when a
criminal mob extorts money
from victims?  Apparently,
extortion is only criminal when
it is practiced by private enti-
ties, but perfectly appropriate
when done so by the govern-
ment.