Stimulus Deal

The White House and the Senate finished their deal early Wednesday morning over a $2-trillion package to place band-aids on an economy about to hit a major depression. The deal ends days of negotiations that produced one of the most expensive and far-reaching measures in the history of Congress.

"Ladies and gentleman, we are done," White House legislative affairs director Eric Ueland said right before 1 a.m. after leaving Senate Majority Leader Mitch McConnell's office. The battle over riders and pork has been going around the clock since last Friday. "We have a deal."

McConnell came to the floor to tell everyone, "At last, we have a deal. After days of intense discussions, the Senate has reached a bipartisan agreement on a historic relief package for this pandemic."

Impeachment Day One

Overheard Over Pakistan

Pakistan's Prime Minister Imran Khan plans an emergency parliamentary session and will meet the body in control of Islamabad's nuclear arsenal in response to India's first air strikes on Pakistan since 1971. 

The two nuclear-armed and unfriendly neighbors have fought three wars since partition in 1947, and the majority of them have been over Kashmir — a territory both India and Pakistan claim in full.

The air strike near Balakot was the deepest strike into Pakistan from India since the end of the last three wars. It was a town 50 kilometers into Pakistan from the Indian border. There are competing claims about the damage caused. One side said it was a smashing success, the other says they didn't hit the side of the barn. Either way, the region is dangerously close to a nuclear war.

Have a nice day.

Speaker Ryan Announces He's Not Running for Re-Election

The Torch Looks Dim

On the surface, it should have been a banner week for The Trump Administration. Despite unemployment being down, and Wal-Mart throwing around $1000 one-time checks to 20-year employees like Oprah (while simultaneously closing down a big pile of unprofitable Sams Clubs) -- Trump let his true colors fly at a meeting when he (allegedly) said, "Why do we want all these people from 'shithole countries' coming here?" 

I'm not totally sure why everyone is acting so surprised. I mean, other than the word SHIT being on every banner headline and on the local news. It's not the cursing that everyone's up in arms about. 

It's not that he lumped all of Africa as one single country. Although, he clearly failed geography.

Perhaps the bigger taboo is that you can bomb countries without wealth and have citizens with darker skin tones than those in Norway - and no one batts an eyelash. But you're not allowed to talk about those inequities.

Much has been written about The Donald's racist remarks. And let's all be clear, his remarks are clearly, and painfully racist. Yes, the torch dims for that reason, across the globe. But wait. There's more.

What's NOT getting any coverage, this week was The House of Representatives passed the FISA Amendments Reauthorization Act of 2017. The short version is that Congress makes it legal for the NSA to search communications that mention a given target but was not sent or received by the target.

So, in other words, gives them carte blanch to spy on Americans without a warrant. Another huge blow to the 4th Amendment and privacy.

It still has to pass the Senate and Trump... but, which headline are you busy reading?

First You've Got To Get Mad

Senator Mark Kirk (r-IL) went on TV today, and said "The Right and Left Fringe hate it -- that's why I love it!"

Time to get mad. The window is closing, folks.

Underwhelming Sugar Coated Satan Sandwich

$2 trillion appears to be the "sweet spot" for spending cuts in order to negotiate a debt limit increase. Rather than cut wasteful and unconstitutional spending, Congress and the President are prepared to trim around the edges to strike a deal.

Video produced by Caleb O. Brown and Austin Bragg.

We Broke

Attention - you cannot pay your mortgage with a credit card.

Obama is on the prompter like a preacher looking to build a new church - "The good news is that we have the money to build the church! The bad news is that it's out there in your pocket."

There's been plenty of yelling and screaming - and a lot of anger toward the Tea Party. This doesn't make sense to me - since they're the ones who hit the fire alarm. Oh, it's because they're birther racists? No, the party is called "tea" because it means Taxed Enough Already. When they called their freshman Congressman that they got elected to the House - they reminded them why the Boehner Bill sucked. They may have mentioned that compromising with the President was a bad idea -- especially since it involved more taxes. More taxes doesn't address the problem - and it's like giving an alcoholic more booze to get them to stop drinking so much. That's the problem. It is Norm Peterson, on a bender, with a tab he has no intention of ever settling. One more Normy? How about we top you off? Perhaps we need to ask a bigger question - maybe the Federal Government is doing a whole lot more than it probably ought to be doing. One of those things? Writing checks.

And here's the best part - they're buying your votes with what used to be your money.

Both teams are acting like those screaming kids in the cereal isle.

What amazes me, is that normal people are getting upset.

"I can't believe they're politicizing this issue..."

THAT'S WHAT THEY DO. That's all this is! It's a political battle - highlighting the useless partisan blinders to obscure the actual truth. We Broke!

And it's broke, it's time to roll up the sleeves and fix it. It's not going to be easy, and given our current attitude of entitlements and leaders who are more interested in their own interests -- we're exactly what I said 2 years ago. We're Greece.

And one last parting shot -- the Congress reflects exactly who put them there. The people who are walking away from underwater mortgages, who floated home equity loans based on inflated price assumptions to purchase stuff on credit to fill into those houses. Sounds similar, like the US debt situation, doesn't it?

Big Brother Loves You

Okay, okay. Correlation does not equal causation. I'm going to have to agree that it has more to do with the corn subsidy, HFCS's, increasing portion sizes, more Americans eating out, Mom working, and, my favorite, the war against tobacco. But it is a thought provoking graph.

Apparently, the documentary Fathead (available Netflix) shows the maddening footage of the Congressional hearings that Gary Taubes' Good Calories Bad Calories and Why We Are Fat (and what to do about it) wrote about. Approximate quote: "We senators don't have time to find out of the science is right, we must act now."

I plan on checking that out pretty soon.

Permission to Bomb Libya

House Members Score ‘Abnormal’ Stock Profits

You know how corporate executives are banned from trading stocks based on inside knowledge? Even Martha Steward went to jail for it. Well, it seems that there are some Democrats in Congress operate under no such restriction. In fact, I thought this was an Onion article at first - mostly because it's such a Duh.

An extensive study released Wednesday in the journal Business and Politics found that the investments of members of the House of Representatives outperformed those of the average investor by 55 basis points per month, or 6 percent annually, suggesting that lawmakers are taking advantage of inside information to fatten their stock portfolios.

…Despite the GOP’s reputation as the party of the rich, House Republicans fared worse than their Democratic colleagues when it comes to investing, according to the study. The Democratic subsample of lawmakers beat the market by 73 basis points per month, or 9 percent annually, versus 18 basis points per month, or 2 percent annually, for the Republican sample…

…Strict laws ban corporate executives from trading on their insider knowledge, but no restrictions exist for members of Congress. Lawmakers are permitted to keep their holdings and trade shares on the market, as well as vote on legislation that could affect their portfolio values…

It's the government that is the most powerful, unaccountable and monopolistic “corporation” of all. Which is why the Framers created the Constitution the way they did: to constrain government, not us.

Consider the Democrat swamp un-drained. Maybe it's not a bribe if some stock tip is just left on the desk? Oops I've misplaced some vital information somewhere? I'll look around for it in the other room. Let me know if you find it. On your desk. On top of all your papers there, Congressman.

Related: The Secret Garden (and Mansion) of Christopher Dodd

They Punted, again.

Republicans and Democrats 'amazingly' pulled a last-minute deal out of their gigantic theatrical hat to prevent a government shutdown. A stopgap bill will keep the government open until next Thursday, at which point congress will vote on a budget agreement to cover the rest of fiscal 2011. Yes. They punted. Again. Remember, this homework assignment was due from the LAST CONGRESS, and has been kicked around, and is still being kicked around in this awful game of political football.

According to a joint statement released by House Speaker John Boehner and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, the agreement “will cut $78.5 billion [Please note, this is only 2% of the federal budget] below the president’s 2011 budget proposal.” Furthermore, Planned Parenthood funding will remain in tact, but is expected to be voted on separately as part of the deal, along with health care reform repeal.

President Obama spoke before the Washington Monument, calling the cuts “painful,” but also praising them as historic. Well? Which one is it? Is it a turd in the hall or cake?

With the “dry run” over, all eyes now turn to the main event: Raising the debt ceiling. That'll be much more fun, and a lot less talked about.

The big loser here? The main stream media - what with their countdown clocks and the dripping with anticipation of a government shutdown. I have 18 pages of links to "The terrible effects on ____ if the government shuts down!" They must have the worst blue balls right now.

The winner? Mr. Speaker - he's won against the President, and Reid, and played to his Tea Party fringe base. What a hero.

Why I'm Against US/Libyan Intervention

I've been against the bombing of Libya before I was against it.

I'm completely confused and alarmed by the seemingly haphazard insanity that Mr. Obama's approach to this particular situation, the way it's transpired, and what the long term implications are and will be.

I have, amazingly, more than one reason for my opinion.

First off, the lazy Susan of the political game has now completely turned back to the Democrats. Now they are the war-mongers. Even the biased main stream media feeds are thumping their fists into their anchor desks making wild rationals that their Commander in Chief is right -- and that multinational intervention in an oil-producing Arab country, without prior congressional approval or majority public support is A-OK. But even eight years ago, George Bush got the support of Congress - he made the Democrats sign off on it before he went in. He even had the UN support, if by only the stack of resolutions and declarations.*

*Note that prior to 2002, the UN Security Council had passed 16 resolutions on Iraq. In 2002, the Security Council unanimously passed Resolution 1441: offering Iraq under Saddam Hussein "a final opportunity to comply with its disarmament obligations" that had been set out in several previous resolutions.

And let's also note this is while we're still engaged in that war - and Afghanistan, now this is going on while we're racking up deficits. Who's paying for it? The Arab League? What's amazing is that the media and folks who I consider "Progressives" are actually saying, “my president, right or wrong,” styled gibberish that they were falling all over themselves to mock eight short years ago.

And then there's General Joe Biden and Mr. Obama themselves. Joe and Mr. Obama were the quickest to get on a milk crate to yell that George W. Bush’s antiterrorism policies and wars in Afghanistan and Iraq was more partisan than principled. Mr. Obama was against, "stupid wars." But Mr. Obama, as President, not only embraced but also expanded the tribunals, preventive detentions, renditions, Predator attacks, intercepts and wiretaps, he also hasn't closed Guantanamo Bay.

Take it a step further - now he can preemptively attack an Arab oil-exporting country without fear of his base, Hollywood, threats of congressional cutoffs, MoveOn.org “General Betray Us”, Cindy Sheehan, or the main stream media. In short, Obama has effectively and determinately ended the antiwar movement. Of course, this author would say that none of the anti-war movement had any affect on the current wars anyway. Why? Well, one, we're engaged in three active shooting wars right now! But more importantly is that it's my contention that as long as the US military remains a volunteer Army, the argument that, "they signed up for it," will prevent any real passion or 'skin-in-the-game' for the general American public.

PS - Iran, Syria, and even North Korea. Just a suggestion - but you better watch your ass.

Then there's Europe. It's been the European role to egg America on to fight their enemies and turn their head and complain that the Cowboy Policeman is an aggressive thug. It's their PR move to look like they're above it all.

But in this one, even the French got into it before the US. I'm sure the oil and all their dealings with Quadaffy have something to do with it. But the dynamic of NATO calling the shots, while 90% of NATO is American, but America doesn't want to play -- is baffling. It's against character.

Don't worry, I'm sure they'll still slap the 'Imperialism' logo on this thing if it goes south. Funny thing with these good intentioned 'kinetic military actions' is that they almost ALWAYS do.

And what, pray-tell, will happen when we don't intervene in the next protest movement in the Middle East? What about the other two wars in Africa - that are happening simultaneously? Sure they're civil wars, but don't we now have a moral obligation to protect the innocent civilians? How much will that cost?

I guess it depends if there's an oil field near the killing field.

If you want to be against this war, marching in the streets won't do it. You need to get off the oil. Stop driving so damn much, and quit buying plastic things.

This STRATFOR chart shows every energy and oil installation in Libya, offshore and on.
Every one is a European-owned entity.
[Click To Enlarge]

Some News

BREAKING: House effort to suspend rules and pass USA PATRIOT Act extension FAILS, 277-148

They prevented them from extending the act until December of this year. There three more, most importantly one that will extend them to December 2013. Obama asked them to be extended to Dec. 2013.

26R 122D voted against the extension, 67D 210R voted for. It needed a 2/3 vote to pass.

Rand and Ron Paul are the major Republican opposition to the bill.

Internet Kill Switch Bill Back in Action On the Same Day Egypt’s Internet Was Shut Off

After making it through the Homeland Security Committee in December, Senator Susan Collins ‘Protecting Cyberspace as a National Asset Act of 2010 faded from view during the mid-term and assumptions were that it would stay faded away.

Unfortunately, Wired Magazine was informed by the bill’s sponsor on Friday that Collins plans to reintroduce the “internet kill switch” bill to a Senate committee again. Friday, of course, was also the day that Egypt shut down it’s own internet in a futile effort to stop mass protests. (An action that, if it continues past Sunday, may be significantly damaging to Egypt’s economy.)

The bill itself can be found here (PDF). Collins said of it:

My legislation would provide a mechanism for the government to work with the private sector in the event of a true cyber emergency…. It would give our nation the best tools available to swiftly respond to a significant threat.

And she of course makes sure to say that the bill would not give the President free reign to shut down every ISP, as has happened in Egypt.

But, there are still some significant worries about the bill. Wired puts it best:

An example, the aide said, would require infrastructure connected to “the system that controls the floodgates to the Hoover dam” to cut its connection to the net if the government detected an imminent cyber attack.

What’s unclear, however, is how the government would have any idea when a cyber attack was imminent or why the operator wouldn’t shutter itself if it detected a looming attack…

…The proposal prohibits the government from targeting websites for censorship “based solely on activities protected by the First Amendment of the United States Constitution.”

Oddly, that’s exactly the same language in the Patriot Act used to test whether the government can wiretap or investigate a person based on their political beliefs or statements.

Of course, this is a bad idea. And since it does violate the first amendment - it'll be struck down. However, that'll take thirty years (See the second amendment vs. Washington DC and also Chicago Illinois).

Most of this story is a cut'n'paste from Geekosystem

SOTU

The 2011 State of the Union Address, enhanced with White House Power Point! [whitehouse.]

For those of you in a hurry - here's the word cloud.

I'd say that sums it up pretty well. People Make America American Jobs New

Patriot Act Renued

Congress, Once Again, Looks To Extend Patriot Act With Little Or No Debate

When the Patriot Act first passed, there were concerns about civil liberties. Especially in reaction to the terrorist attacks of 2001. In order to mollify those concerned, Congress put in some "sunset" provisions, which would have certain aspects of the Patriot Act expire at a particular time. Last year, parts of the Patriot Act were set to expire, and some folks had hoped that it would open up some opportunities to better protect basic civil liberties. You know, that whole 4th amendment non-sense.

Too bad it was an election year, no one wanted to look "soft" on terrorism, Congress had little discussion about the matter and simply decided to re-up the entire Patriot Act, saying they'd review the provisions this year.

Sure.

In an attempt to be amusing, the extension of the Patriot Act was buried in the "Medicare Physician Payment Reform Act."

Read more

Sunday Comics: Week in Review

We made it to the end of this week...
Here's where we cover somethings missed, or ignored and tell it with cartoons.
First off - It snowed in Europe. You'd think they'd never seen the stuff. But getting snow in Italy is kind of like getting snow in Florida. Planes, trains and autos across Euro-Land have been stuck in a snow drift.
Speaking of snow drifts - The Bears/Vikings game sure has been funny already. Bears are afraid of playing on a hockey rink - especially after last week. Vikings are afraid of showing up. Peterson and Favre are out or questionable - seems hardly fair. If I were a Viking's fan - I'd be super pissed because there will be no liquor allowed at the college venue.

What caused the Metro Dome to 'pop'?
And speaking of football...
And back to why Santa uses his antiquated sleigh -
And missed the part where he didn't want to deal with the TSA.

Meanwhile, Harry Reid had been holding on to a huge pile of crap that he didn't want to show off until after the election - and is trying to ram it down America's throat. The OmniBus (Pork II) didn't make it, and he had John Stewart make it look like the Republicans were the ones being dicks by not giving 9/11 First Responders their aid package. That's Harry Reid who put the legislation in the order to be voted upon. Pure Politics.
And as far as what the Congress - specifically Reid's Lame Duck Senate and Pelosi's Lame Duck House - WITH the dirty Republicans - are leaving coal in the kid's stockings. And that's only if we're lucky. It seems NO ONE is paying any attention to the European Union falling apart... which should be a stark warning of our own imminent collapse...
Which is setting up a very interesting year
Drink up, Happy.

Well, hope to see you next week. We're either ramping up for a really busy week - or total slack. See you 'round the 26th.

Don't Ask, Still

Defense Bill With 'Don't Ask, Don't Tell' Repeal Falls Short in Senate

The Senate has turned down the attempt to move to final debate and votes on a defense bill that would repeal "don't ask, don't tell." The vote was 57-40, three short of the 60 needed.

Senator Harry Reid, called a key procedural vote on repeal of the military's "don't ask, don't tell" policy despite having failed to reach agreement with Republicans to proceed.

Republicans have indicated that without an agreement about the number of amendments and the timing of the debate, they would vote against moving forward to vote on the legislation.

Mr. Reid conceded that that the failure to reach an agreement could doom the effort to repeal the policy, which has been a key priority for Mr. Obama and gay activists.

WikiLeaks Brings "Patriot Act" to Internet

WikiLeaks Being Used to Justify "Patriot Act" Legislation For The Internet

[Repost] Senator Mitch McConnell called Assange a "high-tech terrorist" on NBC's Meet the Press Sunday and said, "if it‘s found that Assange hasn’t violated the law, then the law should be changed."

Over the weekend, an insightful article by Zen Gardner exposed how WikiLeaks resembles an establishment creation. The article correctly pointed out that the WikiLeaks storyline was conforming nicely to the elite's problem-reaction-solution method, with the solution of more tyranny for our safety.

WikiLeaks is being used to bring in the agenda on so many levels, but most importantly by setting the precedent of shutting down websites for politically "dangerous" content. Gardner writes:

After all, if information is now the enemy, we must carefully police any and every aspect of this dangerous medium -- all for the safety and protection of 'we the people.'

Oh, we’ll still have the Internet, just like you can still fly. You’ll just have to be on the 'approved' list, screened, stamped, zapped, mugged and molested if you want to get 'on the net.' No biggie. Thanks Julian -- job well done.

First, let's be clear, the 250,000 pages of cables amounted to some geopolitical Jerry Springer he-said she-said nonsense to make countries look petty and stupid. They revealed nothing new that wasn't already known or well suspected. The information simply stoked existing flames by airing geopolitical dirty laundry, nothing more -- no secret weapons, no major arms deals, no tactical locations of troops, and no revealing the ID of secret agents, etc.

Yet, the government has used its corporate muscle to illegally limit access to WikiLeaks. It was recently revealed that Amazon, the server host for WikiLeaks, caved to political pressure to drop the website. Then, in dictatorial fashion, PayPal removed its service for donations to WikiLeaks, and now their bank account has been frozen. And all this comes a week after the shutdown of 80-plus websites for "copyright infringement," apparently in preparation for passing the "Blacklist" bill.

Now, Gardner's weekend speculation and McConnell's call for action has turned into political reality. The Hill reports today that Senators unveil anti-WikiLeaks legislation, which seems to be a sort-of "Patriot Act" for the Internet. It's astonishing how fast these guys can write legislation when major events occur. And again, it's tyranny-saurus rex, Joe Lieberman, leading the charge with scandal-ridden Ensign (R-Nev.) and empty-suit Scott Brown (R-Mass.). Ensign was quoted:

WikiLeaks is not a whistleblower website and Assange is not a journalist.

That, we agree with. Yet, therein lies the concern for establishing new Internet rules of what can and can't be discussed, and who qualifies as a "journalist." Look, Assange is clearly either a kinda-smart "useful idiot" or a brilliant insider to the elite. He is certainly not a genuine whistleblower. Admittedly, though, for those of us who hoped he was the real thing, the elite have used some savvy tactics to boost WikiLeaks' rogue credibility in order to confuse us.

The White House has sent down a warning to government agencies to restrict employee access to WikiLeaks in order to make Assange and crew appear dangerously off limits. Apparently, this warning has already trickled down to "potential" government employees as well. It was revealed that the State Department warned Columbia University students who may apply for a Federal job:

DO NOT post links to these documents nor make comments on social media sites such as Facebook or through Twitter.

In other words, the Thought Police are out in full force telling job-hungry students to not apply if they discuss current events if authorities label those events dangerous or harmful to America. Soon, they'll most likely publicly fire a mid-level employee who went over the line to prove how serious they are. After all, they desperately need to keep the slaves on the plantation.

Furthermore, an Interpol arrest warrant has been issued for Julian Assange for shady rape charges, making him an internationally "wanted" man.

And Assange is playing the clever but likable villain part so well, too, claiming to have an encrypted "insurance" file in case anyone kills him or terminates the website. Assange is the perfect international man of mystery with the dark shades in press conferences; endless mainstream media interviews with his exotic accent and short temper; and his famous silver-blond locks. What a great show they're putting on for us. I'm sure the movie industry is already clamoring for the rights to the script.

In the meantime, it has become the typical political game show. Only in America could Cablegate become such a divide-and-conquer partisan issue. The Right have successfully defined WikiLeaks as a dangerous terrorist organization and desire the assassination of its leader, while the Left defends the public's right to knowledge, but disparages the damage the documents may cause, thus setting up the obvious bipartisan compromise: tighter control and surveillance of the Internet.

It will go down like this: the Right's extreme calls for Assange's execution will give the establishment the publicly defensible compromise to at least shut down their website by way of pressuring their service providers, etc. And the wimpy Left will compromise by letting it happen, while Assange will be allowed to remain alive and free.

It fits ever so perfectly for them to extend the definition of an "enemy combatant" to a website that publishes "anti-government" material. Enter Attorney General Eric Holder, who has authorized "significant" action into the probe of WikiLeaks. Can't you just smell the tyranny coming to the Internet?

Ron Paul said it best in his book Revolution: A Manifesto: "Truth is treason in an empire of lies." Paul reiterated this principle of transparency in a recent interview. Paul said we need more WikiLeaks if we expect to live in a free society:

'In a free society we're supposed to know the truth,' Paul insisted. 'In a society where truth becomes treason, then we're in big trouble.'

Given the angry calls for action and today's developments of government proposals, not to mention the blight of Internet legislation already on the table, we will likely get the exact opposite of the free-flow of information that Paul is advocating. In fact, if history is any indicator, get ready for nothing less than the Patriot Act for the Internet!

[Author of this post is Eric Blair]