Does America really want a change?

[homedawg]

Trillions? Get ready for quadrillion
Debt clock in NYC modified to handle incomprehensible growth
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Posted: February 13, 2009
11:35 pm Eastern


NEW YORK – The Obama administration economic stimulus package is going to force the Treasury to borrow approximately $2.5 trillion in 2009 and another $4 trillion in 2010, with the result of increasing the current $10 trillion national debt by 65 percent in just two years.

If the Obama administration increases the national debt by 65 percent every two years, the debt will be $16.5 trillion in 2010 and $27.225 trillion by 2012, the year of the next presidential election.

To answer the question of how big a problem borrowing $6.5 trillion will be over the next two years, we decided to examine just how large 1 trillion actually is.

One trillion is the number 1 followed by 12 zeroes, as in: 1,000,000,000,000.

If you had gone into business on the day Jesus was born, and your business lost a million dollars a day, 365 days a year, it would take you until October 2737 to lose $1 trillion.

If you spent $1 million a day, every day since Jesus was born, you would still be only slightly more that three-quarters of the way to spending $1 trillion.

One trillion dollars divided by 300 million Americans comes out to $3,333 per person.

One trillion one-dollar bills stacked one on top of the other would reach nearly 68,000 miles into the sky, about a third of the way from the Earth to the moon.

Earth's home galaxy, the Milky Way, is estimated to contain about 200 billion stars. So, if each star cost one dollar, one trillion dollars would buy five Milky Way galaxies full of stars.

One trillion seconds of ordinary clock time equals 31,546 years. So, spending money at the rate of one dollar every second, or $86,400 every day, would still take nearly 32,000 years to spend $1 trillion.

If someone were to build city blocks that contained 10 homes valued at $100,000 per home, you would end up with ten houses to a block, ten blocks to a mile and a hundred blocks per square mile. It would take 10,000 square miles to reach $1 trillion in value. This would be more than the size of six U.S. states: Vermont, 9,615 square miles; New Hampshire, 9,351 square miles; New Jersey, 8,722 square miles; Connecticut, 5,544 square miles; Delaware, 1,954 square miles; and Rhode Island, 1,545 square miles.

Craig Smith, founder and CEO of Swiss America, estimates it would take approximately four generations of Americans to pay off the interest of the U.S. Treasury bonds sold as debt to create the $1 trillion stimulus package, factoring in a 3 percent growth rate in the economy throughout that time.

The U.S. national debt now exceeds $10 trillion according to the according to the U.S. National Debt Clock, at Times Square in New York City.

With the estimated population of the United States at 305,556,415 people, each citizen's share of the national debt is $34,769.40.

In September 2008, the digital display on the Times Square National Debt Clock was modified to eliminate the dollar sign, so the national debt in tens of trillions of dollars could be displayed.

The clock, created in 1989 by Manhattan real estate developer Seymour Durst, is now being redesigned so it can display the national debt in numbers measured in the hundreds of millions, with a dollar sign that could be eliminated should the national debt ever reach $1 quadrillion.

The new clock should be ready to install early this year.

The Bush administration added more than $4 trillion to the national debt, increasing it more than 70 percent from the time George W. Bush took office Jan. 20, 2001.

Yet trillions may no longer be enough to measure important financial statistics on a global basis.

The Bank of International Settlements now estimates that derivatives, the complex bets financial institutions and sophisticated investors make with one another on everything from commodities options to credit swaps, now top $650 trillion worldwide – that’s $ 0.65 quadrillion.

A quadrillion, a trillion multiplied by 1,000, is a 1 followed by 15 zeroes, as in: 1,000,000,000,000,000.



U.S. NATIONAL DEBT CLOCK



The estimated population of the United States is 305,645,427
so each citizen's share of this debt is $35,220.72.

The National Debt has continued to increase an average of
$3.48 billion per day since September 28, 2007!

[homedawg]

McCain Faults Obama Over Stimulus

WASHINGTON (Feb. 15) - Sen. John McCain says President Barack Obama failed to include Republicans in writing the big economic stimulus bill.
The Arizona Republican says the $787 billion measure will create what he calls "generational theft" — huge federal deficits for years to come.

McCain, who lost the presidential race to Obama, says the president is backtracking on promises of bipartisanship. McCain is not happy with the process that led to passage of the stimulus bill. He calls it a bad beginning to Obama's presidency.


“It was a bad beginning,” McCain said of the legislative process that led to the stimulus bill. “It was a bad beginning because it wasn’t what we promised the American people, what President Obama promised the American people – that we would sit down together.”
McCain offers this advice: "Let's start over now and sit down together."


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[homedawg]

The Mac Is Back!


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[homedawg]

[Irish Brigade]

So Homdawg what would be your plan to fix the economy destroyed by the 8 years? Tax cuts? Please give us some direction :thumbs:

[FlyersFan]

So Homdawg what would be your plan to fix the economy destroyed by the 8 years? Tax cuts? Please give us some direction :thumbs:

well my friend, the same people who just put the stimulous through are the same ones who have been helping destroy our economy for the past 8 years (minus the mental midget bush). was a group effort. to pin it on anyone shows a complete lack of understanding of the last 8 years.

i have talked to manypeople and everyone laughs and calls this the "spending package", not stimulous.....nancy pelosi writing in 30M for some endangered mouse in her territory....:dunno:...are you fking kidding me??

we needed a bill aimed at creating jobs and stimulating the economy. there is so much waste and crap in that bill that does nothing more than spend money we don't have. of the 768B, probably 2/3 of it is just pure spending....and nothing more.....there was almost nothing done to help small business, there was very little done in the way of creating anything in comparison to what was just spent on pure **** that wasn't necessary.

it's a fking joke and it is going to do nothing for the economy other than cornhole us for generations to come.....hope all the "change" mongers are happy....:thumbs:....

(and i thought bush was awful so don't put any of this pro bush **** on me)

[Irish Brigade]

So again give us some direction guys....

Let the free market fix it? Ha

Make it 100% tax cuts so the wealthy will create lots of jobs for us all like Bush's done?

Or maybe we should follow Michael "scumbag" Steele's logic that work is not actually a job?
YouTube - Republican National Party chair Michael Steele claims 'work' is not 'a job'.

Blame the Unions?

Bring in foreclosure Phil Gramm?



Direction :thumbs:

Brigade

[homedawg]

$13.00


Economic stimulus legislation at the heart of President Barack Obama's recovery plan after a dizzying final round of bargaining that yielded agreement on tax cuts and spending totaling $789 billion.

Obama, who has campaigned energetically for the legislation, welcomed the agreement, saying it would "save or create more than 3.5 million jobs and get our economy back on track."

The $500-per-worker credit for lower- and middle-income taxpayers that Obama outlined during his presidential campaign was scaled back to $400 during bargaining by the Democratic-controlled Congress and White House. Couples would receive $800 instead of $1,000. Over two years, that move would pump about $25 billion less into the economy than had been previously planned.

Officials estimated it would mean about $13 a week more in people's paychecks when withholding tables are adjusted in late spring. Critics say that's unlikely to do much to boost consumption.

Millions of people receiving Social Security benefits would get a one-time payment of $250 under the agreement, along with veterans receiving pensions, and poor people receiving Supplemental Security Income payments.

Obama steadfastly denies there are any earmarks in his stimulating swindle, but while he allocates $13.00 each for people, Nancy Pelosi has tucked aside $30 million for the protection of the salt marsh harvest mouse.

National debt:

One thing about the president's $790 billion stimulus package is certain: It will jack up the federal debt.

Whether or not it succeeds in producing jobs and taming the recession, tomorrow's taxpayers will end up footing the bill.

Forecasters expect the 2009 deficit — for the budget year that began last Oct 1 — to hit $1.6 trillion including new stimulus and bank-bailout spending. That's about three times last year's shortfall.

The torrents of red ink are being fed by rising federal spending and falling tax revenues from hard-hit businesses and individuals.

The national debt — the sum of all annual budget deficits — stands at $10.7 trillion. Or about $36,000 for every man, woman and child in the U.S.

Interest payments alone on the national debt will near $500 billion this year. It's already the fourth-largest federal expenditure, after Medicare-Medicaid, Social Security and defense.

This will affect us all directly for years, as well as our children and possibly grandchildren, in higher taxes and probably reduced government services. It will also force continued government borrowing, increasingly from China, Japan, Britain, Saudi Arabia and other foreign creditors.

Falling!

[homedawg]

Dow nears 10-year low
February 17, 2009

Stocks tumbled to November levels Tuesday as investors faced a fresh sign of the deepening recession and dilution worries gnawed at bank stocks.

The Dow Jones Industrial Average shed nearly 297.81 points, or 3.8 percent, to close at 7552.60, within one point of its November closing low. (The November intraday low, however, is about 100 points lower.)

The S&P 500 lost 4.6 percent to close at 789.17, and the Nasdaq dropped 4.2 percent to close at 1,470.66.

Are We Headed for a New Low?

This comes after last week's 5.3-percent drop in the Dow as few details on the execution of the stimulus plan and worries about the potential for wiping out bank stocks weighed on the market. Financials were the week's worst performer, down 10 percent, while health care was the best, down just 2.4 percent.


Financial gloom was everywhere Tuesday.

On Wall Street, the Dow Jones industrial average came within sight of its lowest levels in more than a decade. Financial shares were battered. And rattled investors clamored to buy rainy-day investments like gold and Treasury debt. Markets from Hong Kong to Stockholm to London also staggered lower.

It was a global wave of selling spurred by rising worries about how banks, automakers - entire countries - would fare in a deepening recession.

At the close, the Dow was down more than 297.81 points, at 7,552.60 points, a drop of 3.79 percent. The index was just a few fractions of a point away from its lows of Nov. 20, when financial markets plummeted to their lowest point in a decade. The only Dow stock to trade consistently in positive territory on The only Dow stock to trade consistently in positive territory was Wal-Mart, which rose after reporting better-than-expected profit.

The broader Standard & Poor's 500-stock index slid 37.67 points, or 4.5 percent, to 789.17 points, unable to cling to what analysts said was an important trading threshold.

"If we get substantially below 800 then look out below," said Marc Groz, chief investment officer at Topos, a risk-advisory firm in Greenwich, Connecticut.

The Nasdaq composite index closed 63.70 points lower, down 4.1 percent, at 1,470.66 points.

The downward spiral came as President Obama signed the $787 billion economic stimulus package and executives at General Motors and Chrysler prepared to submit major restructuring plans to the U.S. government after receiving billions in bailout money.

General Motors stock, which was more than $25 last February, was trading lower on Tuesday, at about $2.15 a share. Shares of the Ford Motor, which has not received any bailout funds, were down 5 percent.

Analysts said investors were still nervous about the U.S. Treasury Department's plans to shore up the financial system and help remove billions of dollars in troubled mortgage-related assets from the balance sheets of major banks.

"The administration is great at floating the rumors, but we need concrete plans to back that up," said Ryan Larson, head equity trader at Voyageur Asset Management. "Without any further concreted details, the market's really left to wonder. And in this environment, they wonder the worst-case scenario."

In a sign of further deterioration in the industrial sector, a gauge of manufacturing in New York State fell precipitously in February, reflecting a plunge in new orders, prices and employment. The Empire State Manufacturing Survey, which is calculated by the Federal Reserve in Buffalo, fell to a new low of minus 34.7 in February, from minus 22.2 in January.

"Robust export demand had been the main support for U.S. manufacturing for many months," Joshua Shapiro, chief United States economist at MFR, wrote in a note. "Now, with economic activity weakening sharply around the world, exports are dropping like a stone, with the pace of decline set to accelerate significantly in the months ahead."

In Europe, attention turned to the plight of lenders active in Eastern Europe after Moody's Investors Service said it might downgrade banks with units in the region. Investors are worried about the debts owed by banks in Eastern Europe to financial institutions in West European countries, especially Austria, Belgium, Germany, Greece and Italy.

"The effects of the slowdown are continuing to widen geographically, especially to countries that have been reliant on demand in the West," said Henk Potts, equity strategist at Barclays Wealth in London.

Amid fears about exposure to Eastern Europe, Erste, a bank based in Vienna, lost 7.7 percent. Swedbank, based in Stockholm, fell 3.6 percent, while UniCredit, the Italian bank, lost 5 percent.

The International Monetary Fund has offered loans to Latvia, Hungary, Serbia and Ukraine but there is speculation that it will have to go back into the region and offer more.

"Market sentiment still remains very poor, corporate profits are under pressure and management is expressing a cautious view through 2009," Potts said.

There is also fear among investors that more banks across Europe will require capital injections from governments. In Britain, the focus has been on Lloyds Banking, which has been hobbled buy its forced merger with the stricken mortgage lender HBOS. Lloyds was off 3.2 percent Tuesday, having shed 8.1 percent Monday and 32.5 percent Friday.

The FTSE 100 index in London was down more than 2 percent while the DAX in Frankfurt slid nearly 3 percent.

In Japan, Finance Minister Shoichi Nakagawa said he would resign amid criticism of his bizarre behavior a Group of 7 news conference during the weekend. The Nikkei 225 Stock Average lost 1.4 percent. In Hong Kong, the Hang Seng index closed down 3.8 percent, while South Korea's benchmark Kospi index ended 4.1 percent lower, the biggest fall in the region.

In European trading, the euro pared initial losses as the German ZEW Feb economic sentiment index came in sharply higher than expected, showing the fourth monthly improvement. The index was minus 5.8 from minus 31 in January. It had been expected to fall to minus 28.0. The euro was at $1.2660 before midday in London, up from $1.2801 late Monday.

Separately, a report showed that the British inflation rate fell to a nine-month low in January as the deepening recession and a drop in fuel costs eased pressure on prices. Consumer prices rose 3 percent from a year earlier, compared with a 3.1 percent pace in December. The median of forecasts in a Bloomberg survey was for a rise of 2.7 percent. Prices fell 0.7 percent from December, the most since January 2008.

U.S. NATIONAL DEBT

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......................

FRONTLINE: inside the meltdown | PBS

FRONTLINE investigates the causes of the worst economic crisis in 70 years and how the government responded. The film chronicles the inside stories of the Bear Stearns deal, Lehman Brothers’ collapse, the propping up of insurance giant AIG, and the $700 billion bailout. Inside the Meltdown examines what Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke didn’t see, couldn’t stop and haven’t been able to fix.







FRONTLINE INVESTIGATES HOW THE ECONOMY WENT SO BAD SO FAST

FRONTLINE Presents
Inside the Meltdown
Tuesday, February 17, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS

FRONTLINE: inside the meltdown | PBS

On Thursday, Sept. 18, 2008, the astonished leadership of the U.S. Congress was told in a private session by the chairman of the Federal Reserve that the American economy was in grave danger of a complete meltdown within a matter of days. “There was literally a pause in that room where the oxygen left,” says Sen. Christopher Dodd (D-Conn.).

FRONTLINE producer Michael Kirk goes behind closed doors in Washington and on Wall Street to investigate how the economy went so bad so fast and why emergency actions by Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke and Secretary of the Treasury Henry Paulson failed to prevent the worst economic crisis in a generation on Inside the Meltdown, airing Tuesday, Feb. 17, 2009, at 9 P.M. ET on PBS (check local listings).

As the housing bubble burst and trillions of dollars’ worth of toxic mortgages began to go bad in 2007, fear spread through the massive firms that form the heart of Wall Street. By the spring of 2008, burdened by billions of dollars of bad mortgages, the investment bank Bear Stearns was the subject of rumors that it would soon fail.

“Rumors are such that they can just plain put you out of business,” Bear Stearns’ former CEO Alan “Ace” Greenberg tells FRONTLINE.

The company’s stock had dropped from $171 to $57 a share, and it was hours from declaring bankruptcy. Ben Bernanke acted. “It was clear that this had to be contained. There was no doubt in his mind,” says Bernanke’s colleague economist Mark Gertler.

Bernanke, a former economics professor from Princeton, specialized in studying the Great Depression. “He more than anybody else appreciated what would happen if it got out of control,” Gertler explains.

To stabilize the markets, Bernanke engineered a shotgun marriage between Bear Sterns and the commercial bank JPMorgan, with a promise that the federal government would use $30 billion to cover Bear Stearns’ questionable assets tied to toxic mortgages. It was an unprecedented effort to stop the contagion of fear that seemed to be threatening the rest of Wall Street.

While publicly supportive of the deal, Secretary Paulson, a former Wall Street executive with Goldman Sachs, was uncomfortable with government interference in the markets. That summer, he issued a warning to his former colleagues not to expect future government bailouts, saying he was concerned about a legal concept known as moral hazard.

Within months, however, Paulson would witness the virtual collapse of the giant mortgage companies Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac and preside over their takeover by the federal government.

The episode sent shockwaves through the economy as confidence in Wall Street began to evaporate. Within days, in September 2008, another investment bank, Lehman Brothers, was on the brink of collapse. Once again, there were calls for Bernanke and Paulson to bail out the Wall Street giant. But Paulson was under intense political pressure from conservative Republicans in Washington to invoke moral hazard and let the company fail.

“You had a conservative secretary of the Treasury and conservative administration. There was right-wing criticism over Bear Stearns,” says Congressman Barney Frank (D-Mass.), chairman of the House Financial Services Committee.

Paulson pushed Lehman’s CEO Dick Fuld to find a buyer for his ailing company. But no company would buy Lehman unless the government offered a deal similar to the one Bear Stearns had received. Paulson refused, and Lehman Brothers declared bankruptcy.

FRONTLINE then chronicles the disaster that followed. Within 24 hours, the stock market crashed, and credit markets around the world froze. “We’re no longer talking about mortgages,” says economist Gertler. “We’re talking about car loans, loans to small businesses, commercial paper borrowing by large banks. This is like a disease spreading.”

“I think that the secretary of the Treasury could not fully comprehend what that linkage was and the extent to which this would materialize into problems,” says former Lehman board member Henry Kaufman.

Paulson was thunderstruck. “This is the utter nightmare of an economic policy-maker,” Nobel Prize-winning economist Paul Krugman tells FRONTLINE. “You may have just made the decision that destroyed the world. Absolutely terrifying moment.”

In response, Paulson and Bernanke would propose—and Congress would eventually pass—a $700 billion bailout plan. FRONTLINE goes inside the deliberations surrounding the passage of the legislation and examines its unsuccessful implementation.

“Many Americans still don’t understand what has happened to the economy,” FRONTLINE producer/director Michael Kirk says. “How did it all go so bad so quickly? Who is responsible? How effective has the response from Washington and Wall Street been? Those are the questions at the heart of Inside the Meltdown.”

Inside the Meltdown is a FRONTLINE co-production with Kirk Documentary Group, Ltd. The writer, producer and director is Michael Kirk. The producer and reporter is Jim Gilmore. FRONTLINE is produced by WGBH Boston and is broadcast nationwide on PBS. Funding for FRONTLINE is provided through the support of PBS viewers. Major funding for FRONTLINE is provided by The John D. and Catherine T. MacArthur Foundation. Additional funding is provided by the Park Foundation. FRONTLINE is closed-captioned for deaf and hard-of-hearing viewers and described for people who are blind or visually impaired by the Media Access Group at WGBH. FRONTLINE is a registered trademark of WGBH Educational Foundation. The executive producer of FRONTLINE is David Fanning.

pbs.org/pressroom
Promotional photography can be downloaded from the PBS pressroom.


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[homedawg]

Unstimulated!

Obama signs stimulus, Dow plunges nearly 300

Stock market Down 2,000 points since Election Day

February 17, 2009
6:10 pm Eastern


Wall Street's doubts about the Democratic Party’s $787 billion deficit-spending economic stimulus plan crystallized today when the Dow Jones Industrial Average plunged nearly 300 points even as President Obama was signing the bill into law in Denver.

The Dow closed at 7552.60, only a fraction of a point shy of the recent low of 7552.29 Nov. 20, just after Obama was elected. The market now is down more than 2,000 points since Obama was elected, when it closed 9625.28 Nov. 4.

Saying that today "marks the beginning of the end" of the economic troubles facing the nation, Obama signed the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.

Obama had created controversy by warning the American public and pressuring Congress that an economic "catastrophe" would occur if the stimulus package was delayed – then taking off the President Day's weekend to Chicago with his family and dining with his wife at a trendy restaurant.

"The process that generated the legislation reflected Washington at its worst, with the dominant Democrats pushing through a package that received limited public airing and virtually no Republican support," wrote economist John Williams, the author of the Internet website Shadow Government Statistics, in his newsletter published this week.

Williams expressed concern that the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act would not create or "save" the 4 million jobs Obama promised at his first prime time news conference Feb. 9.

"The cures being offered by the government should have only limited positive impact on the economy, but they do offer the promise of much higher inflation," Williams wrote.

"The current crisis has developed and evolved during the last four decades, as trade and economic policies – counter to the interests of much of the U.S. citizenry – have resulted in the significant loss of high paying domestic production or technical jobs, where production operations have been lost to offshore competition, or simply moved offshore," he explained.

WND has reported the U.S. Treasury is preparing to borrow up to $2.5 trillion in 2009 to cover the anticipated 2009 federal budget deficit, followed by borrowing another $4 trillion in 2010, with the prospect of increasing the current $10 trillion U.S. national debt by 65 percent in the first two years of the Obama administration.

WND also has reported that the true current obligations of the federal government, as determined by the U.S. Treasury using GAAP, or Generally Accepted Accounting Practice, rules, totaled $65.5 trillion in 2008, exceeding the gross domestic product of the world.

Williams predicted that the magnitude of deficit spending required by the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 will create hyper-inflation in the United States no later than 2014.

Hyperinflation occurs when currency devaluation dramatically reduces purchasing power.

A commonly cited instance of hyperinflation occurred in the Weimar Republic in Germany after World War I, when thousands of German marks were required simply to purchase a loaf of bread or to mail a letter at the German post office.

Williams also noted that the "buy American" language in an earlier version of the Obama economic stimulus plan was circumscribed after objections from Canada and the European Union by the addition of a clause that added "buy American" would only be applicable in accordance with the requirements of existing trade agreements, such as NAFTA and World Trade Organization, the WTO.

"The anti-U.S. nature of the WTO is an example of the trade policies of recent decades that have helped to neuter a fair portion of a once much mightier U.S. industrial base," Williams wrote.

[homedawg]

Keyes: President 'has something to hide' on eligibility
Says Dem 'asked to be chosen, therefore must answer'
Posted: February 16, 2009



Alan Keyes, a 2008 presidential candidate who now is a plaintiff in one of the many lawsuits seeking to verify whether Barack Obama qualifies under the U.S. Constitution's requirements to occupy the Oval Office, says the tactics adopted by lawyers for the president confirm there is an issue for the courts to investigate.

Keyes, who was the candidate of the American Independent Party, cited a recent exchange with lawyers representing Obama in which they warned they might seek monetary penalties against those raising the question of Obama's eligibility under the Constitution's requirement that the president be a "natural born" citizen.

"It confirms the common sense suspicion that he won't act forthrightly in this matter because he has something to hide," Keyes wrote on his blog after WND reported the warning about "sanctions" was raised by Obama's defense lawyers.

The onetime U.S. ambassador explained on his posting that those raising questions over Obama's elibigility – so far – have simply been ignored by courts.

"In effect, the courts are refusing to admit plaintiffs on this matter into the courtroom, thereby denying them justice," he wrote. "Madison wrote, 'Justice is the end of government. It is the end of civil society. It will be pursued either until it be obtained or until liberty be lost in the pursuit.'"

"The denial of justice is thus a despotic act that violates the basis not only of just government, but of civil society itself," Keyes wrote.

Obama voluntarily placed himself in the position of being asked to provide his information, he said.

"Given the Constitutional requirement, the only fact citizens need to justify their suit is the fact that Obama ran for president. He asked to be chosen, and therefore must answer the eligibility question," Keyes wrote,

Where's the proof Barack Obama was born in the U.S. or that he fulfills the "natural-born American" clause in the Constitution? If you still want to see it, join more than 240,000 others and sign up now!

"In the final analysis if the courts refuse to respect the Constitution, they are not the judges of their own action. The people must ultimately decide. Which is why I and others will use every outlet to inform them of the injustice being done not just to individuals but to the sovereign people as a whole," Keyes said.

WND has reported on multiple legal challenges that have alleged Obama does not meet the "natural born citizen" clause of the U.S. Constitution, Article 2, Section 1, which reads, "No Person except a natural born Citizen, or a Citizen of the United States, at the time of the Adoption of this Constitution, shall be eligible to the Office of President."

Some claim he was not born in Hawaii, as he insists, but in Kenya. Obama's American mother, the suits contend, was too young at the time of his birth to confer American citizenship to her son under the law at the time.

Other challenges have focused on Obama's citizenship through his father, a Kenyan subject to the jurisdiction of the United Kingdom at the time of his birth, thus making him a dual citizen. The cases contend the framers of the Constitution excluded dual citizens from qualifying as natural born.

Several details of Obama's past have added twists to the question of his eligibility and citizenship, including his family's move to Indonesia when he was a child and on what nation's passport he traveled to Pakistan in the '80s, as well as conflicting reports from Obama's family about his place of birth.

The Keyes case is being handled largely by Gary Kreep of the United States Justice Foundation, but others playing a key role in the legal actions include Orly Taitz of California as well as Philip Berg, both of whom already have had their arguments rejected as not worthy of hearing by the U.S. Supreme Court.

In a commentary on the dispute, Keyes wrote that the suggestion of sanctions "confirms Obama's ruthless determination to destroy anyone who continues to seek the information the Constitution requires.

"Why should they demand penalties against citizens who are simply seeking the enforcement of the Supreme Law of the Land? It is simply because their persistence runs contrary to the will of a supposedly popular demagogue? This smacks of tyrannical arrogance. That Obama thus signals his intent to bring financial ruin on those who won't accept his cover-up of the circumstances of his birth is a tactical escalation," Keyes said.

"As one of the targets of this escalation, I need no more convincing proof of the ruthless disposition so far successfully masked by his empty rhetoric of hope and change. Obviously he means to offer hope only to those willing to surrender their most basic rights. To any who insist on questioning his actions, he offers the drastic change of ruin and destruction. So be it. We shall be among those who learn firsthand the meaning of the sacrifices made by the Founders of our free republic, as they pledged and gave up their lives, their fortunes and the world's esteem," Keyes said.

The legal sanctions being sought are not the only obstacle facing those who say they want to investigate the truth of Obama's eligibility. Four state lawmakers in Tennessee recently agreed to act as plaintiffs in a case being assembled by Taitz, and immediately were attacked by columnist Gail Kerr in the Nashville Tennessean, who compared their plan to "a resolution honoring the Easter Bunny for doing such a great job with the annual colored egg delivery system."

The columnist wrote that Obama's campaign already has released documentation of his birth.

"They put it on their Internet site. Obama's mother was a U.S. citizen. His father was from Kenya. The man was born on Aug. 4, 1961, in Hawaii. That, fellows, is a state. As in the 'United STATES of America.' It counts. See?" Kerr wrote.

Critics, however, have pointed out that the "Certification of Live Birth" posted by the Obama campaign and cited by various "truth" organizations is not the same as a birth certificate, and in fact under Hawaii law at the time was granted to babies who were not born in Hawaii.

Taitz wrote that her supporters should send "flowers, candy, banners, appreciation cards, teddy bears with big love sign and thank you sign to these courageous lawmakers: Eric Swafford, Glen Casada, Stacey Campfield and Frank Niceley."

The suggestion for sanctions came after Kreep sought records from Occidental College about Obama's attendance there.

The lawyer for the college, Stuart W. Rudnick of Musick, Peeler & Garrett, urgently contacted Fredric D. Woocher of Strumwasser & Woocher.

"This firm is counsel to Occidental College. The College is in receipt of the enclosed subpoena that seeks certain information concerning President-Elect Barack Obama," he wrote via fax. "Inasmuch as the subpoena appears to be valid on its face, the College will have no alternative but to comply with the subpoena absent a court order instructing otherwise."

Within hours, Woocher contacted Kreep regarding the issue, telling him, "It will likely not surprise you to hear that President-elect Obama opposes the production of the requested records.

"In order to avoid the needless expense of our bringing and litigating a Motion to Quash the subpoena, I am writing to ask whether you would be willing to agree voluntarily to cancel or withdraw the subpoena."

Woocher warned, "Please be advised, in particular, that in the event we are forced to file a motion to quash and we prevail in that motion, we will seek the full measure of monetary sanctions provided for in the Code of Civil Procedures."

Here is a partial listing and status update for some of the cases over Obama's eligibility:

• New Jersey attorney Mario Apuzzo has filed a case on behalf of Charles Kerchner and others alleging Congress didn't properly ascertain that Obama is qualified to hold the office of president.
  
• Philip J. Berg, a Pennsylvania Democrat, demanded that the courts verify Obama's original birth certificate and other documents proving his American citizenship. Berg's latest appeal, requesting an injunction to stop the Electoral College from selecting the 44th president, was denied.
  
  
• Leo Donofrio of New Jersey filed a lawsuit claiming Obama's dual citizenship disqualified him from serving as president. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court but denied a full hearing.
  
• Cort Wrotnowski filed suit against Connecticut's secretary of state, making a similar argument to Donofrio. His case was considered in conference by the U.S. Supreme Court, but was denied a full hearing.
  
• Former presidential candidate Alan Keyes headlines a list of people filing a suit in California, in a case handled by the United States Justice Foundation, that asks the secretary of state to refuse to allow the state's 55 Electoral College votes to be cast in the 2008 presidential election until Obama verifies his eligibility to hold the office. The case is pending, and lawyers are seeking the public's support.
  
• Chicago attorney Andy Martin sought legal action requiring Hawaii Gov. Linda Lingle to release Obama's vital statistics record. The case was dismissed by Hawaii Circuit Court Judge Bert Ayabe.
  
  
• Lt. Col. Donald Sullivan sought a temporary restraining order to stop the Electoral College vote in North Carolina until Barack Obama's eligibility could be confirmed, alleging doubt about Obama's citizenship. His case was denied.
  
  
• In Ohio, David M. Neal sued to force the secretary of state to request documents from the Federal Elections Commission, the Democratic National Committee, the Ohio Democratic Party and Obama to show the presidential candidate was born in Hawaii. The case was denied.
  
  
• In Washington state, Steven Marquis sued the secretary of state seeking a determination on Obama's citizenship. The case was denied.
  
  
• In Georgia, Rev. Tom Terry asked the state Supreme Court to authenticate Obama's birth certificate. His request for an injunction against Georgia's secretary of state was denied by Georgia Superior Court Judge Jerry W. Baxter.
  
• California attorney Orly Taitz has brought a case, Lightfoot vs. Bowen, on behalf of Gail Lightfoot, the vice presidential candidate on the ballot with Ron Paul, four electors and two registered voters.

In addition, other cases cited on the RightSideofLife blog as raising questions about Obama's eligibility include:

• In Texas, Darrel Hunter vs. Obama later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Ohio, Gordon Stamper vs. U.S. later was dismissed.
  
  
• In Texas, Brockhausen vs. Andrade.
  
  
• In Washington, L. Charles vs. Obama.
  
  
• In Hawaii, Keyes vs. Lingle, dismissed.

WND senior reporter Jerome Corsi had gone to both Kenya and Hawaii prior to the election to investigate issues surrounding Obama's birth. But his research and discoveries only raised more questions.

The governor's office in Hawaii said there is a valid certificate but rejected requests for access and left ambiguous its origin: Does the certificate on file with the Department of Health indicate a Hawaii birth or was it generated after the Obama family registered a Kenyan birth in Hawaii, which the state's procedures allowed at the time?

[Irish Brigade]

Ah Alan Keyes!!!!! I have seen it all now!!!

Keep up the comedy show Homedawg. It's a laugh a minute with you! :thumbs:

[homedawg]

American Sentinel
The "crash" officially began when Obama won the Democratic Nomination

Next time you hear a Democratic talking head spouting the usual blame on Bush regarding the current economic crisis, remember that the stock market crash started once Wall Street realized Obama could actually become President. It's not about the last 8 years, or the last 4 years. After Clinton "the blameless one" handed off the dot bomb to Bush in 2001, the stock market floundered a bit as it recovered from ridiculous over pricing in tech stocks. The market recovered in late 2002 and began a steady increase over the next 6 years. These images show that crucial spikes and dips are strangely related to points in the election that showed Obama on the rise, and then McCain surging. Once it became clear that Obama would win, the market dropped faster than flight 3407 over Buffalo.



1. Hillary Clinton Concedes the nomination to Obama on June 7, 2008. Interestingly this date in time marks the beginning of a long steady decline in the markets.

2. McCain begins a miracle comeback and it appears he may have a chance. Despite being outspent over 2 to 1, (in some mediums over 3 to 1), the market hangs tough through August but begins a decline in September as doubts grow.

3. Obama is largely considered the sure winner, and has all major newspapers, major TV networks, comedy shows, and movies supporting him all the way.

4. Despite a campaign of massive spending by the Democrats which included buying prime time on all three major networks, plus Obama's own TV channel running 24/7 on networks such as Dish, the polls actually showed some new support for John McCain as people began to realize that they didn't really know Barak Obama. Once the elections were finalized though, it has been all downhill, and not surprisingly, all the worst fears of those most nervous about Obama have come true.

Few were those who spoke out against Obama at that time (myself not included). It was all going to be great. Historic. Monumental. But the fact that we elected a spokesperson type with no actual experience has had disastrous results. You will no doubt hear Democrats spouting off about how Obama is just trying to overcome 8 years of failed policy and an economy that was in the tank, but I would argue that perhaps Wall Street knew what most Obama voters were not willing to consider: Obama would be a tax and spend liberal or worse. The man looks at economics as if we were still in the 70s, and wants people to get out their shovels. He's a showman who will let Dems like Pelosi and Rangel do the actual legislative work, which is frightening. I don't really want to see laid off Microsoft employees shoveling highway ditches, and unemployed small business executives doing some landscaping work to save the mouse. I would prefer to let businesses be businesses, and not subjects of Executive Branch ridicule.

Please. Take a moment, look at these charts, and realize that this market crash may be a direct result of Obama himself, and his party's message of catastrophe, fear and great depression. We hope the economy will recover, and when it does, let us all remember to cut through the BS of those who will surely give Obama all the praise. Wall Street knows better, and conservatives do as well. Only those dumb enough to vote for Obama in the first place will believe his story of hype and circumstance when it's all over. These folks might also be dumb enough to vote for a referendum to extend Presidential term limits. Obama's going to need at least 12 years for his "great plan" to actually work. Maybe 16. I can hear Sean Penn arguing that point now, with one arm around Hugo Chavez, and the other around Barak.

[homedawg]

Who's next? Tax troubles for president's chief of staff


Emanuel's rent-free Washington residence draws questioning


There could be tax troubles on the horizon for White House Chief of Staff Rahm Emanuel, who reportedly has lived rent-free in Washington for five years but hasn't paid taxes on the imputed income, according to reports.

He's the latest in a growing list of President Obama's nominees to have been involved in tax issues.

WND columnist Phyllis Schlafly writes that several of "Obama's major nominees are mired in political embarrassment. Three withdrew their names from consideration, one sneaked through confirmation because senators were still intoxicated with the Obama honeymoon, and Obama plans to use a waiver so the Senate will approve the fifth."

"Funny thing," she continued, "Americans don't seem to like it when government officials evade the taxes the rest of us pay, especially when they evade more taxes than most Americans' entire tax bill. Apparently, that doesn't seem to bother Obama."

According to the New York Post, the nondisclosure of free rent in a home owned by Rep. Rosa DeLauro, D-Conn., apparently isn't all that's being questioned about Emanuel's arrangements.

Another issue is "the work Emanuel tossed the way of DeLauro's husband, Democratic pollster Stan Greenberg."

The Post said while Emanuel was living in the rent-free arrangement, he also served as the chairman of the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee, which gave Greenberg several polling contracts, paying him $239,000 in 2006 and $317,000 in 2008.

The report said Emanuel has explained the living arrangements as "hospitality" between colleagues, and that's why it never appeared on his financial-disclosure forms.

But the Post suggested that over five years, the rent could have been worth more than $100,000.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was confirmed despite not paying taxes on time, Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle withdrew his name over unpaid taxes and proposed Chief Performance officer Nancy Killifer withdrew over similar problems.

Schlafly noted Daschle's tax problems involved $146,000 that went unpaid. But larger than the money was the response to such misbehaviors.

"Even after it became publicly known that Daschle had failed to pay all his income taxes, Obama defiantly declared that he was 'absolutely' standing by Daschle," she wrote.

After Daschle took his own name out of the running, Obama admitted he made a "mistake" in the selection. But he didn't admit a similar misjudgment over Geithner, who paid about $35,000 past due after being nominated to the post.

In Killifer's case, she reportedly failed to pay required employment taxes on her household employee.

Also, while the issue didn't involve taxes, Obama's first pick for secretary of commerce – New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson – proved an embarrassment because of his involvement in an alleged pay-to-play scheme.

The Washington Post and New York Daily News suggested that at a minimum, the gift rules for members of the U.S. House may not have been met by Emanuel's extended use of free housing.

And according to reports in the Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Democrat Al Franken, whose challenge to incumbent Sen. Norm Coleman remains unresolved, also had tax issues during his campaign.

Franken's campaign manager, Andy Barr, said the candidate's accountant worked with California officials during the campaign to sort out whether he paid taxes on earnings in the state between 2003 and 2007.

Franken previously left unpaid workers' compensation and disability premiums in New York.