Del.icio.us Links

links for 2009-02-24

  • J. Edgar Hoover is necessary to square the soaring liberal rhetoric on civil liberties with the atrocious civil liberties records of liberal presidents. With an ideology extolling civil liberties crashing into its record of smashing civil liberties, ideologues reshape the facts to fit the ideology. The blame-Hoover template asks readers to believe that the president takes orders from the director of the FBI rather than the reverse. It portrays the world-class arm-twister Lyndon Johnson as a man prone to crying uncle, Woodrow Wilson as secretly opposing his administration's policies, and the Kennedys acceding to electronic surveillance on Martin Luther King only for his own protection.
  • As he did with the Mayors on Friday, President Obama in the State Dining Room just told the nation's governors that he would not hesitate to call them out if they push wasteful programs from their stimulus dollars.
    (tags: barack_obama)
  • Congress would bestow the status of federal civil unions on same-sex marriages and civil unions granted at the state level, thereby conferring upon them most or all of the federal benefits and rights of marriage. But there would be a condition: Washington would recognize only those unions licensed in states with robust religious-conscience exceptions, which provide that religious organizations need not recognize same-sex unions against their will. The federal government would also enact religious-conscience protections of its own. All of these changes would be enacted in the same bill.
    ++++++++
    The religious portion would be ruled unconstitutional paving the way for federally accepted gay marriage.
    No thanks.
  • And as noted Friday, the markets have been heading down, pretty sharply. Since Obama's election, there's been quite a bit of ominous news for the markets coming from the administration — probably not sufficient to drive down stock prices by themselves, but clearly incapable to mitigate other bad economic factors. We've seen anxiety about the lack of detail in Geithner's plan, massive government borrowing squeezing out capital that would otherwise be available to the private sector, a dread of future tax hikes, and an overall sense that those running Washington see corporate America as a scapegoat/villain/punching bag, not a partner in building prosperity. Oh, and in order to build support for his plan, the president is declaring the economy is on the verge of "catastrophe."
    +++++++
    Nate Silver should stick to baseball and flacking for the DNC
  • President Obama is eager to seek a bipartisan solution to ensure the long-term solvency of Social Security, people who have spoken with him say, but he is running into opposition from his party’s left and from Democratic Congressional leaders who contend that his political capital would be better spent on health care and other priorities.
  • Republicans are hatching a political comeback by dusting off a strategic playbook written nearly two decades ago.

    Its themes: Unite against Democrats’ economic policy, block and counter health care reform and tar them with spending scandals.

    Those represent the political trifecta that former House Speaker Newt Gingrich bet on in 1994 to produce a historic Republican takeover of Congress.

    Now, some Republicans believe President Barack Obama’s one-two push on the economy and health care reform is setting the stage for a new round of significant gains, if not a total takeover.

    “There are two models that Republicans are looking at,” said Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform.
    +++++++
    The Dems are worried that Obama may overreach and hence this spun piece

  • Lou Correa, a Democratic state senator from Santa Ana, refused to vote for the budget package that Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger and legislative leaders fashioned until a relatively tiny amendment was made that would give Orange County an injection of $35 million a year in state funds.
    Meanwhile, another budget vote, that of Assemblyman Anthony Adams, R-Hesperia, was nailed down after another provision was inserted, allowing Glendora, a city in his district, to retain about $2.6 million a year in redevelopment project property taxes that otherwise would go to other local governments and schools in Los Angeles County.
    +++++++
    And, the leadership from the Governor has been where?

2 Comments

  • Michael Ejercito

    J. Edgar Hoover is necessary to square the soaring liberal rhetoric on civil liberties with the atrocious civil liberties records of liberal presidents. With an ideology extolling civil liberties crashing into its record of smashing civil liberties, ideologues reshape the facts to fit the ideology. The blame-Hoover template asks readers to believe that the president takes orders from the director of the FBI rather than the reverse. It portrays the world-class arm-twister Lyndon Johnson as a man prone to crying uncle, Woodrow Wilson as secretly opposing his administration’s policies, and the Kennedys acceding to electronic surveillance on Martin Luther King only for his own protection.

    Wilson actually signed an extension of the Sedition Act.