If you have not read the article yet, please do so here. The Obama administration is claiming that the closure of Guantanamo Bay prison is a top priority. Why is this a bad idea you might ask? Well first off why the hell would you want to hold terrorist suspects on AMERICAN soil? Where is the great one, Dear Leader, going to house all of the terrorist suspects as he continues Bush's tactics and finds Bin Laden?

Also, where are all of the current suspects being detained going to go? Are we to put them in American prisons so if they get out they are free on our soil? Or better yet Mr. Liberal Dumbass will say we are the evil America that he and his Wife are just now proud of and will release them all; we didn't have anything on them anyways right? Didn't Obama praise the Supreme court for the ruling that allowed prisoners at Gitmo to file suit against the United States? Yeah he did, he is happy we gave non citizens, not even on our soil, the right to sue us when they are blowing soldiers up with IED's?

Maybe I am alone here, and that is fine, but closing Gitmo will be a huge mistake. Obama is basically telling terrorists what we are telling our corporations, there are no consequences for your actions do what the hell you like. Gah, this is going to be a fun four years.

Can someone save us, please? What is wrong with our leaders today. Why are we being so foolish?

The troubles of the ailing auto industry are quickly becoming a major focus for President-Elect Barack Obama’s young administration. As Congress and President Bush debate an industry bailout, sources indicate that Obama may favor creating a White House office, headed by an “auto industry czar,” to oversee reforming the troubled American auto industry.

The Detroit News reports that both “Bush and Obama are signaling they may favor appointment of an auto czar to oversee the government’s efforts to funnel emergency assistance to automakers.” Congressional leaders and members of both the outgoing and incoming administrations have all said that automakers might receive federal aid only on certain dictions, including efforts “to further improve fuel efficiency and show that they have a plan to return to profitability. Automakers could also be required to give the government preferred stock in the companies and accept government representatives as board members. As in the 1979-80 Chrysler bailout, workers may have to make wage concessions.”

The press was unable to get direct confirmation of the plan yesterday. John Podesta, the former Clinton administration official heading Obama’s transition team, told the Washington Post “When we have an announcement about that, we’ll raise it.”

 Barack Obama does not just want to be our President, he wants to be our Lord, our Savior. Save us from our evil ways Obama, we can not be happy with out you. Gah!

I know I am a strong advocate of not bailing out companies, and I have been pretty straightforward about that. Why must we continue with AIG though? The last time we gave them money they spent a six figure sum to treat their executives to a lavish retreat. Now they are trying to take more of my hard earned money to do it again? 

I know this is an extreme example but here it goes. If you have a gambling problem, and you lose all your money. Do you go to your parents and ask for free money to fix your issues? Probably not, but for the sake of argument say they agree and give you all the money you lost back with no strings attached. Have you learned your lesson about gambling? If you said yes you are lying to yourself. It does not work in any other scenario, it will not work in this one.

The U.S. government reached a deal Sunday night to scrap its original $123 billion bailout of American International Group Inc. and replace it with a new $150 billion package, according to people familiar with the matter. While the arrangement stands to considerably ease terms on the faltering insurer, it gives the government an unprecedented role as an actor in financial markets…Under the terms ironed out late Sunday, the government would give AIG more money, including $40 billion from the U.S. Treasury’s $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program. It would also receive less interest than on the bulk of the original loan, while freeing AIG from exposure to some of the risky financial instruments that nearly caused it to file for bankruptcy protection.

The $150 billion in government aid consists of a $60 billion loan, a $40 billion preferred-stock investment and $50 billion in capital largely to purchase distressed assets which are to be placed into two separate financing entities.”

We are too mean to the poor poor non-law abiding non citizens. How dare you, Lou you should be ashamed!

Dobbs brought up the pair's disagreements. "You criticized me recently," said Dobbs. "I did not!" Turner said. (You can judge for yourself.)

Later in the interview, as Turner wanted to stay on a topic, he relented, saying, "It's your show not mine."

"But you made it possible," responded Dobbs.

 

If you don't remember the lovely Laura Richardson, She's the Democrat congresswoman from California who defaulted six times on her home loans (yes really, it's six) and a nice long trail of unpaid bills. Well, here is where the irony is; she is now trying to get money back from Lehman Brothers after bad investments went awry. On behalf of the taxpayers of course.  Is it not great how the world works?

 

Congresswoman Laura Richardson is working to recoup the $19.9 million the city of Long Beach lost when Lehman Brothers went bankrupt in September, she announced Thursday night.

Richardson, D-Long Beach, said she and unspecified California delegation colleagues are calling on Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson to purchase the city’s now worthless investment - Lehman Brothers commercial paper, which essentially would have functioned as a short-term, 27-day loan.

City officials, already struggling with budget shortfalls, would surely be grateful if the newly re-elected congresswoman could broker the deal.

Long Beach officials made the investment as part of the city’s $1.8billion investment portfolio just days before Lehman Brothers went bankrupt.

Under the federal Troubled Assets Relief Program, which is part of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act passed by Congress in September, the Treasury Department can buy up troubled assets held by local governments.

Richardson said in a statement she wants to ensure “that taxpayers are protected and receive a share in the solutions” of the economic rescue plan.

Long Beach is also expected to lose up to $5.8 million more as a result of shifting other money into lower-yield investments, city officials have said.

The liberal nut talk show host Charles "Karel" Bouley who threatened to take the life of "Joe the Plumber" has been fired. Of course like all liberals, he is playing the victim card, blaming others for his outburst.

In his defense, Karel says that he was told by the engineer, who left the studio to use the bathroom, that his microphone was off. The engineer was also told, he says, to make sure it is off during breaks because Karel talks to his chat room during the breaks, saying things not appropriate for the air.

"Weekends are cheap and they were using a cheap engineer for my show," he said. "My show shouldn't have had an inexperienced engineer for my show, which is done remotely, and in which the host doesn't have an on/off switch on his mic They put an inexperienced driver in the seat and the show crashed."

 

I guess you should try not to have homicidal thoughts from now on? 

In this wave of change that is upon us I am still trying to get an idea of what "changes" are to come. I decided to once again go to the new Change.gov that President-Elect Obama has so graciously setup for us to see what the agenda is. Here is what I get:

President-Elect Obama and Vice President-Elect Biden have developed innovative approaches to challenge the status quo in Washington and to bring about the kind of change America needs.

The Obama Administration has a comprehensive and detailed agenda to carry out its policies. The principal priorities of the Obama Administration include: a plan to revive the economy, to fix our health care, education, and social security systems, to define a clear path to energy independence, to end the war in Iraq responsibly and finish our mission in Afghanistan, and to work with our allies to prevent Iran from developing a nuclear weapon, among many other domestic and foreign policy objectives.

 

Do you understand what hes going to do? I see what he wants to change but not how he intends to change it. I am still very apprehensive about him, I still to this day do not understand his plan on what hes going to do. He has wrapped the American public in this hype of change. Everyone is so eager to change they forget to stop and ask what are we changing again? Or even better, how are we changing it?

He has said that he is going to change the "failed Bush policies". Like what kind of policies? The policies that have kept us safe the past 7 years? The policies that have kept terrorists out of the country since 9/11? No not those, maybe the policies that kept us prosperous until Democrats took over congress and flushed our economy down the toilet with their regulations. 

We will soon find out just what kind of changes are in store for us. The question is, are they the changes the people wanted.

The liberals are at it again, wanting to take a stake in the "big 3" as you can read here. Why must our tax dollars be used to buy stakes in failing businesses? If I go to a bank and say "Hey, my business is failing, I'm losing money, I'm on the verge of bankruptcy... Can I get a loan?" what do you think they will say?

A key House Democrat is writing legislation that would send $25 billion in emergency loans to the beleaguered auto industry in exchange for a government ownership stake in the Big Three car companies.

 

Have our leaders in Washington gone mad? I don't want to be on the hook for these companies and I am sure you don't either! What happens if we give them the loan and they still fail? Now the United States public is on the hook for these bankruptcies? We are heading down a very scary path to socialism. It seems that very little are doing what they can to stop it.

No one seems to realize that there is a reason that America is what it is, and its not the "everyones a winner" strategy that got us here. We worked to get where we are, and we worked hard. I do not want to see this all go down the toliet because we wont let market decide whats best.

Nov. 12 (Bloomberg) -- President-elect Barack Obama is barring lobbyists from participating in the transition that will help install his administration. He will still leave room on his team for the rich and powerful.

Top fundraisers and other well-connected supporters will serve in an advisory capacity before the Democrat takes office on Jan. 20.

Five of the 12 members of Obama's transition advisory board raised at least $50,000 for his presidential campaign, and eight contributed the maximum individual donation of $4,600. Other transition team members include a partner in a lobbying firm and two executives of financial companies whose employees were among his biggest donors.

``If an Obama administration is going to sell influence, these are the ones who have bought it,'' said Craig Holman of Public Citizen, a Washington-based advocacy group that favors stronger campaign-finance and lobbying laws.

Obama spokeswoman Stephanie Cutter defended the advisory board, saying it ``was selected based on the skill and experience of each member, and they are providing critical advice to ensure a smooth transition process.''

Transition co-Chairman John Podesta yesterday released rules banning registered lobbyists from raising money for the transition or working for the new administration in areas on which they represented clients.

The new rules also prohibit members of the transition team who become lobbyists from trying to influence the administration on any issues that they worked on. Podesta called them ``the strictest, the most far-reaching ethics rules of any transition team in history.''

Bundlers Exempt

The rules, however, won't prevent campaign fundraisers known as bundlers from serving.

Valerie Jarrett, a transition co-chairwoman, raised between $100,000 and $200,000 for Obama, according to his campaign Web site. Two advisory board members, Julius Genachowski, managing director of Rock Creek Ventures, a Washington firm that invests in online companies, and Donald Gips, a vice president of Broomfield, Colorado-based Level 3 Communications Inc., each raised at least $500,000 for Obama.

A third, Michael Froman, brought in between $200,000 and $500,000 for the campaign. Froman is a managing director at New York-based Citigroup Inc. The financial institution's employees and their families contributed $581,216, Obama's seventh-biggest source of campaign cash, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a Washington-based research group.

Campaign co-chairman William Daley, a vice chairman at New York-based JPMorgan Chase & Co., also sits on the advisory board. JPMorgan employees and their families were Obama's sixth-biggest source of donations, giving $581,460.

Registered to Lobby

Another board member, Mark Gitenstein, was registered to lobby through June, House records show. Gitenstein is a partner in the lawyer-lobbying firm of Mayer Brown LLP, whose clients include Dearborn, Michigan-based Ford Motor Co., which is pushing for government help, and New York-based Merrill Lynch & Co., which sold itself to Bank of America Corp. in September.

Obama may be learning quickly that what sounds good on the campaign trail may not always be best for governing, said Costas Panagopoulos, director of Fordham University's Center for Electoral Politics and Democracy in New York.

``They want to find the most qualified people; some will have been donors,'' Panagopoulos said. ``It was probably shortsighted to make promises that such individuals would not be included in his administration.''

Plenty of Jobs

The president-elect will have plenty of opportunities to fill jobs before he takes office. Podesta said he expects the transition to have a $12 million budget and employ about 450 people. With less than half that amount coming from federal appropriations, Obama's transition team will raise money privately, he said. As in the campaign, Obama won't accept money from registered lobbyists and political action committees, Podesta said.

Obama raised a record $650 million for his presidential campaign as he became the first major party nominee to shun federal funds for the general election.

To contact the reporter on this story: Jonathan D. Salant in Washington at This e-mail address is being protected from spambots, you need JavaScript enabled to view it .