Some reflections on the Neoconservative agenda

Doomed to Collapse?

By tmartin • December 17, 2008

In his latest column Ron Paul warns of dire consequences if we do not get back on a sustainable economic course in this country.

Economic Freedom or Socialist Intervention?

by Ron Paul

The freedom to fail is an essential part of freedom. Government-provided financial security necessitates relinquishing the very essence of freedom. Last week, the big 3 American automakers came back to Capitol Hill with their hands out to the government. Congress spent this past week debating how much money to give them and what strings should be attached. Though the bailout plan for the auto industry has suffered what I would call a temporary setback in the Senate, other avenues for public funding are being explored through the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department. I am afraid the American auto industry will soon learn that having billions rain down from Washington will not be the blessing one might expect.

The government, after it subsidizes an industry, tends to become a very demanding benefactor. Politicians may not have any real idea about how to build a car, run a bank, educate a child, heal the sick or build a road, but they are quite adept at using carrots and sticks to manipulate and threaten those who do. Most of the federal control over education, roads, healthcare, and now banking and soon auto manufacturing, is done through money, mandates and conditions. The bailout proposal we were considering would force automobile manufacturers to submit their business plans for the approval of a new federal “car czar.” This bureaucrat would have the authority to approve the automakers’ restructuring plan, monitor implementation of the plan, and even stop certain transactions he determines are inconsistent with the companies’ long-term viability.

One could argue that if billions of taxpayer dollars are going to flow into a failing industry, then representatives of those taxpayers have “bought” a say in how that industry is run – which is precisely why bailouts are such a bad idea for both the industry and the taxpayers. The federal government has neither the competence nor the Constitutional authority to tell private companies, such as automakers, how to run their businesses. I would have thought that failed experiments with central planning and government control of business that caused so much harm in the last century would have taught my colleagues the folly of making businesses obey politicians and bureaucrats instead of heeding the wishes of consumers, employees, and stockholders. But the auto industry is in danger of learning for themselves one of the oldest lessons in politics: he who pays the fiddler calls the tune.

It is not the job of government to sustain business. The government should get out of the way, and instead examine excessive regulations, tax policy and red tape that have been hostile to manufacturing in this country. We should get back on a sustainable economic course in this country, or we are doomed to collapse, as the Soviets did, under the crushing burden of big government and a strangled economy that can no longer pay for it.

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Madoff’s $50 Billion Scheme: Big Losses For Investors And IRS

Madoff’s Ponzi Scheme Could Cost IRS $17 Billion In Lost Tax Revenue

RACHEL BECK | December 18, 2008 08:09 PM EST |

NEW YORK — Even Uncle Sam may get burned by Bernard Madoff.

Investors who lost their fortunes in Madoff’s alleged Ponzi scheme will end up paying far less in taxes and may even be eligible for refunds, according to accounting experts.

By some estimates, the Internal Revenue Service could be out as much as $17 billion in lost tax revenue.

“This is one more thing federal, state and local officials will have to deal with,” said John Berrie, a tax partner at the law firm Bryan Cave in New York City. “It’s another heavy box on their back.”

In addition, investors may be counting on a federally mandated insurance fund to bail them out, but that program lacks the money to pay for all the claims that are likely to come.

The timing couldn’t be worse. Unemployment has surged, meaning fewer workers are paying payroll taxes. And housing prices have dropped, reducing property taxes.

The recession so far has cost the federal government $200 billion in tax revenues for the 12 months that ended in November, according to estimates by Moody’s Economy.com.

The Madoff case, which reportedly involves $50 billion, adds another layer to the fiscal crisis gripping the nation.

MORE HERE

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Yellowcake Intelligence Baking….It’s Baaack!! :)

Report: Gonzales And Rice Appear To Have Lied To Congress About Vetting Bush’s Pre-War Uranium Claims»

In his January 2003 State of the Union address, as part of his effort to make the case for invading Iraq, President Bush infamously declared that “the British government has learned that Saddam Hussein recently sought significant quantities of uranium from Africa.” The White House was later forced to repudiate the statement after former Ambassador Joseph Wilson blew the whistle on the claim.

As part of an investigation into pre-war intelligence claims, the Senate Select Committee on Intelligence asked the White House to provide examples of times that the CIA had cleared such uranium references for use in speeches. On January 6, 2004, then-White House Counsel Alberto Gonzales sent a letter to Sen. John Rockefeller (D-WV) on behalf of Condoleezza Rice that claimed the CIA had “orally cleared” the uranium claim for two of Bush’s speeches.

But in a new memo, House Oversight Chairman Henry Waxman (D-CA) says that he has found evidence contradicting Gonzales’ assertions:

The information the Oversight Committee has received casts serious doubt on the veracity of the representations that Mr. Gonzales made on behalf of Dr. Rice. Contrary to Mr. Gonzales’s assertions, the Committee has received evidence that the CIA objected to the uranium claim in both speeches, resulting in its deletion from the President’s remarks.

When White House speechwriters tried to put the uranium claim into Bush’s Sept. 12, 2002 speech to UN, the CIA rejected it because it was “not sufficiently reliable to include it in the speech”:

During an interview with the Committee, John Gibson, who served as Director of Speechwriting for Foreign Policy at the National Security Council (NSC), stated that he tried to insert the uranium claim into this speech at the request of Michael Gerson, chief White House speechwriter, and Robert Joseph, the Senior Director for Proliferation Strategy, Counterproliferation, and Homeland Defense at the NSC. According to Mr. Gibson, the CIA rejected the uranium claim because it was “not sufficiently reliable to include it in the speech.” Mr. Gibson stated that the CIA “didn’t give that blessing,” the “CIA was not willing to clear that language,” and “[a]t the end of the day, they did not clear it.”

When National Security Council staff refused to take the uranium claim out of Bush’s Sept. 26, 2002 speech, Jami Miscik, the Deputy Director of Intelligence at the CIA, called Rice personally to request it be removed:

According to Ms. Miscik, the CIA’s reasons for rejecting the uranium claim “had been conveyed to the NSC counterparts” before the call, and Dr. Rice was “getting on the phone call with that information.” Ms. Miscik told Dr. Rice personally that the CIA was “recommending that it be taken out.” She also said “[i]t turned out to be a relatively short phone call” because “we both knew what the issues were and therefore were able to get to a very easy resolution of it.”

According to Waxman, Rice refused to testify to the Committee about the pre-war claims, so he is unable to say “how she would explain the seeming contradictions between her statements and those of Mr. Gonzales on her behalf and the statements made to the Committee bv senior CIA and NSC officials.

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Obama Explains Why He Has Chosen Rick Warren For The Inauguration

Obama tries to explain Rick Warren

Crooks & Liars- By John Amato Thursday Dec 18, 2008 1:00pm

(h/t FDL)
Here’s what Obama had to say about Rick Warren:

Mr. Obama himself responded to the growing controversy when prompted by a question during a news conference today designed to announce a trio of financial regulators. The president-elect stressed that he is a “fierce advocate for equality for gay and lesbian Americans,” but said it was also important for Americans to come together despite disagreements on social issues.

Mr. Obama said the inauguration would include people with a wide variety of viewpoints represented and “that’s how it should be.”

He also pointed out that he was invited by Warren a few years ago to speak at his church, despite his disagreement with Warren on those issues. “That dialogue is part of what my campaign has been about,” he added.

The Left in this country has been tormented and assaulted for eight years under Bush, conservatives and religious-right leaders like Rick Warren. We were called traitors, America-haters, and Socialists who didn’t support the troops — everything that they called Barack Obama during his presidency run. Well, we got that too and fought as hard as we could against it.

What Rick Warren represents is something that is dark and ugly in American culture. He is given a huge platform to disparage groups of people to the media under the guise of his religious beliefs. And he is also celebrated for it. During the whole Brian Nichols/Ashley Smith hostage and murder saga back in 2005, the media gave more attention to Rick Warren’s book than to the actual victims of the crime.

MORE HERE

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Senator Levin: Cheney Confessed To Approving Waterboarding

Senator: ‘As far as I’m concerned,’ Cheney admitted condoning torture

Raw Story- David Edwards and Diane Sweet
Published: Thursday December 18, 2008

Vice President Dick Cheney confessed to approving torture, Senate Armed Services Committee Chairman Carl Levin (D-MI) told MSNBC’s Rachel Maddow Wednesday night.

During an interview with ABC News on Monday evening, Cheney had said “I supported it,” referring to the practice known as “waterboarding,” a form of simulated drowning.

“I was aware of the program, certainly, and involved in helping get the process cleared, as the agency in effect came in and wanted to know what they could and couldn’t do,” Cheney said. “And they talked to me, as well as others, to explain what they wanted to do. And I supported it.”

“Did he just admit to condoning torture?” Maddow queries.

“As far as I’m concerned, that’s exactly what he admitted,” Levin said after a pause to shut his eyes, and shake his head as if still in disbelief.

MORE HERE

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Redford: Bush Is ‘Morally Criminal’, ‘Devious’, ‘Sneaky’!

Redford: Bush is ‘morally criminal,’ ‘devious” and ‘sneaky’

By Jeff Dufour and Patrick Gavin

Sundance Kid is stormy on 43

The appointment Wednesday of Sen. Ken Salazar to head Barack Obama‘s Department of the Interior coincided nicely with a news conference held at the National Press Club in which actor Robert Redford, speaking via satellite, advocated on behalf of the National Trust for Historic Preservation.

“I think very highly of [Salazar],” Redford stated, echoing sentiments made by Rep. Brian Baird, D-Wash., and other NTHP representatives, all of whom were there to speak out against the possibility of the Bureau of Land Management selling new oil and gas leases around Utah’s Nine Mile High Canyon.

Redford warned that leases around the canyon “need to be stopped.”

“Bush may be a lame duck, but he knows how to quack,” said Redford. He warned: “We should not leave one more debt” of the Bush administration for Obama to fix.

“These lands are part of our legacy … not Cheney’s and Bush’s,” he continued. “[They’ve] been trashing the environment since they came in, like it was their prerogative.”

But he was just getting warmed up: On top of Redford’s criticisms of the Bush administration’s environmental policies, he called Bush “morally criminal” on three separate occasions and said he “was shocked about how devious and sneaky” Bush has been while in office.

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