Obama will be tested by N Korea Missle Launch

The Obama administration cannot send a 'Happy Nowruz Iran' YouTube video to N Korea and 'hope' for 'change'...the world is a different place, it's not south side Chicago and these folks are not community activists...the reality is setting in and we are still in the first 100 days of Obama's term...not good signs for the future.

by RenoCon

Gates: U.S. Not Prepared to Respond to North Korea Missile Launch

The defense secretary told "FOX News Sunday" that the United States can do nothing to stop North Korea from thumbing its nose at the international community by test-firing a long-range missile.

By Bill Sammon | FOXNews.com | Sunday, March 29, 2009

The United States can do nothing to stop North Korea from breaking international law in the next 10 days by firing a missile that is unlikely to be shot down by the U.S. or its allies, Defense Secretary Robert Gates said Sunday.

Appearing on "FOX News Sunday," Gates said North Korea "probably will" fire the missile, prompting host Chris Wallace to ask: "And there's nothing we can do about it?"

"No," Gates answered, adding, "I would say we're not prepared to do anything about it."

Last week, Admiral Timothy Keating, commander of U.S. forces in the Pacific, said the U.S. is "fully prepared" to shoot down the missile. But Gates said such a response is unlikely.

"I think if we had an aberrant missile, one that was headed for Hawaii, that looked like it was headed for Hawaii or something like that, we might consider it," Gates said. "But I don't think we have any plans to do anything like that at this point."

North Korea has moved a missile onto a launch pad and says it will be fired by April 8. Pyonyang insists the missile is designed for carrying a communications satellite, not a nuclear warhead that the secretive nation appears bent on developing.

Gates said while he doesn't think North Korea has the capability yet to shoot off a long-range nuclear-tipped missile, "I don't know anyone at a senior level in the American government who does not believe this technology is intended as a mask for the development of an intercontinental ballistic missile." more...

Nevada Tax Bill Alert: SB394... NO NEW TAXES!!! Act now.

Nevada...speak out against new taxes!!! Follow this link and submit your opinion about Senate Bill 394 (SB394).

Senate Bill 394-Register ATV's, dirtbikes, ATV's & snowmobiles

Reply to: sale-q3bwa-1092833517@craigslist.org
Date: 2009-03-26, 8:05AM

This Senate Bill before the legislature would require that ALL off-highway vehicles be titled and registered through DMV just like any other vehicle. We need to let our legislators know that this is not acceptable. We already pay enough taxes, fees etc... to enjoy our public lands. 
Here are some links for info on the bill and submit your opinion. 
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/opinions/poll/ 
https://www.leg.state.nv.us/75th2009/Bills/SB/SB394.pdf 

Geithner's Toxic Plan... Obama's ponzi scheme

Tiny Tim Geithner's plan is yet another Ponzi scheme from the Obama administration.

Part I: Geithner's Plan "Extremely Dangerous," Economist Galbraith Says

Posted Mar 23, 2009 11:08am EDT by Henry Blodget

Related: ^GSPC, ^DJI, C, BAC, JPM, WFC

Tim Geithner has finally revealed his plan to fix the banking system and economy.  Paul Krugman, James Galbraith, and others have already trashed it. 

[We spoke with noted economist Galbraith this morning. In the accompanying segment, he calls the Treasury Secretary’s plan “extremely dangerous.”] 

Why? 

In short, because the plan is yet another massive, ineffective gift to banks and Wall Street. Taxpayers, of course, will take the hit

From The Business Insider, March 23, 2009:

Tim Geithner has finally revealed his plan to fix the banking system and economy.  Paul Krugman, James Galbraith, and others have already trashed it. 

Why? 

In short, because the plan is yet another massive, ineffective gift to banks and Wall Street. Taxpayers, of course, will take the hit.

Why does Tim Geithner keep repackaging the same trash-asset-removal plan that he has been trying to get approved since last fall?  

In our opinion, because Tim Geithner formed his view of this crisis last fall, while sitting across the table from his constituents at the New York Fed: The CEOs of the big Wall Street firms.  He views the crisis the same way Wall Street does--as a temporary liquidity problem--and his plans to fix it are designed with the best interests of Wall Street in mind. 

If Geithner's plan to fix the banks would also fix the economy, this would be tolerable.  But no smart economist we know of thinks that it will.

We think Geithner is suffering from five fundamental misconceptions about what is wrong with the economy.  Here they are:

The trouble with the economy is that the banks aren't lending.  The reality:The economy is in trouble because American consumers and businesses took on way too much debt and are now collapsing under the weight of it.  As consumers retrench, companies that sell to them are retrenching, thus exacerbating the problem.  The banks, meanwhile, are lending.  They just aren't lending as much as they used to.  Also the shadow banking system (securitization markets), which actually provided more funding to the economy than the banks, has collapsed.

The banks aren't lending because their balance sheets are loaded with "bad assets" that the market has temporarily mispriced.  The reality: The banks aren't lending (much) because they have decided to stop making loans to people and companies who can't pay them back.  And because the banks are scared that future writedowns on their old loans will lead to future losses that will wipe out their equity.

Bad assets are "bad" because the market doesn't understand how much they are really worth.  The reality: The bad assets are bad because they are worth less than the banks say they are.  House prices have dropped by nearly 30% nationwide.  That has created something in the neighborhood of $5+ trillion of losses in residential real estate alone (off a peak market value of housing about $20+ trillion).   The banks don't want to take their share of those losses because doing so will wipe them out.  So they, and Geithner, are doing everything they can to pawn the losses off on the taxpayer.

Once we get the "bad assets" off bank balance sheets, the banks will start lending again.  The reality: The banks will remain cautious about lending, because the housing market and economy are still deteriorating. So they'll sit there and say they are lending while waiting for the economy to bottom.

Once the banks start lending, the economy will recover.  The reality:American consumers still have debt coming out of their ears, and they'll be working it off for years.  House prices are still falling.  Retirement savings have been crushed.  Americans need to increase their savings rate from today's 5% (a vast improvement from the 0% rate of two years ago) to the 10% long-term average.  Consumers don't have room to take on more debt, even if the banks are willing to give it to them.

The two charts below from Ned Davis illustrate the real problem: An explosion of debt relative to GDP.  The first is Nonfinancial Debt To GDP.  The second is Total Debt To GDP. 

In Geithner's plan, this debt won't disappear.  It will just be passed from banks to taxpayers, where it will sit until the government finally admits that a major portion of it will never be paid back.

TOTUS goes on tour as the "World offers plenty of tests for Obama"

As Obama gallivants across the country appearing on late night and prime time shows [with TOTUS, of course], the rest of the world sees Obama as a weak self centered infantile, lacking a real grasp of global affairs...so, yes...Biden was right [that's one in a row], Obama is now being tested on multiple fronts.

by RenoCon

Joel Brinkley | Sunday, March 22, 2009

World offers plenty of tests for Obama

The November election was less than a month away when Sen. Joe Biden told an audience in Seattle that the world would soon test Barack Obama.

"Watch, we're going to have a crisis, a generated crisis, to test the mettle of this guy," Biden predicted. Within hours, the nation's cabal of political analysts cried out in unison: gaffe, gaffe, gaffe!

As a political matter of that time, Biden's remarks were certainly unwise. But if you look at the state of the world today, he was absolutely right.

"It will not be six months before the world tests Barack Obama," he said. In fact, it has been only about two months, and one nation after another has been flinging serious challenges - so many that I can mention only a few, including Darfur.

Right about now, more than 1 million people are running out of food, clean water and health services. Right about now, the first cases of meningitis and dysentery are striking refugees. Without health care, some of them will die. For six years, Western nations have decried the carnage in Darfur but done little, if anything, about it until finally the International Criminal Court issued an arrest warrant for Sudan's dictator-thug, Omar el-Bashir. After masterminding six years of genocidal violence, el-Bashir reacted by kicking out the aid workers who have been keeping more than 2 million people, refugees of el-Bashir's slaughter, alive. On Monday, he ordered remaining aid workers to stop delivering food and medicine. more...

We The People Stimulus Package

And for the rest of us... "Welcome to Green Hell..."

As we know the limousine liberals will still be jet setting and preaching the gospel of 'global warming' or is it now climate change???...in any event the common folk will feel the brunt of more government oversight in forcing 'green' down our collective throats.

Welcome to Green Hell, Where You’re All a Bunch of Slaves

by Doug Giles | Saturday, March 21, 2009

If you thought the global warming climate clowns were bad before Obama ascended to the throne, you ain’t seen nothing yet with our new chartreuse Commander in Chief. Of course Barack, personally or professionally, won’t go green because it’s too “inconvenient” and way too expensive for his gig, but for us serfs schlepping in Obamaland we will have to worship the turf because, you see, we’re murdering the earth. Quit laughing. This is serious. I said quit laughing. The earth is dying, and it ain’t funny.

In PoMo America where bullcrap is alive and well, we’re going to be forced to exchange the worship of God for grass. In Bermuda We Trust. And if we don’t bow and kiss Pelosi and her tribe’s jade ring we could be used as human tiki torches to light her garden. Be afraid, plebeians. Be afraid.

After Obama was ACORNed into the White House, several black hip hop “artists” said that with the election of Barack the White House would soon morph into the Black House. I hate to break it to you, Ludacris, but you’re a day late and a few special interest groups short, as the off-their-frickin’-rocker global warming Gestapo are in line way ahead of you to paint 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue green, dawg. Fo’ shizzle, my nizzle.

Brace yourself, boys and girls, as we’re about to have green shoved up our backsides like never before. Yep, going emerald will soon move from being an Ed Begley, Jr./Daryl Hannah option and will quickly become a government dictate because climate change is a “fact,” or as Ron Burgundy would say, “It’s science.”

Never mind the little detail that a staggering 31,000 scientists refused to sign the UN’s “consensus” on global warming hysteria, compared to the paltry 2,000 bought off wizards who John Hancocked it. more...

The Obama Ponzi Scheme

The shuffling of shells continues...AIG is just the tip of federal government meddling in economic affairs that are best left to the private sector.

by RenoCon

Forbes Calls Obama Administration Worse than Madoff 
'Forbes on FOX' guests asked if Madoff's Ponzi scheme or Obama's spending plan will cause more economic damage. 

By Lauren O'Reilly 
Business & Media Institute
3/17/2009 4:10:02 PM 

According to some “Forbes on Fox” guests, the Obama Administration is more harmful to the economy than Bernie Madoff’s infamous Ponzi scheme.

 

On March 12, Madoff pled guilty to 11 felony counts including money laundering, perjury, and mail, wire, and securities fraud. On Mar. 14, Fox host David Asman asked guests of the show “Who’s worse for the market – Bernie Madoff or the folks in D.C.?”

 

Steve Forbes, Forbes magazine’s editor-in-chief, blamed the folks in D.C. as the worse culprit. Forbes explained that “in terms of what the current administration is doing, in terms of the cost they’re applying to the economy, uh destroying, hitting businesses, small businesses with new taxes, taxing capital, wasting tens and hundreds of billions of dollars, that’s gonna do more economic harm than Bernie Madoff could ever dream of doing.”

 

Guest Mike Ozanian, accused Obama of running a $2 trillion Ponzi scheme through his economic spending strategy. Ozanian, national editor of Forbes, explained, “Madoff’s scam is about $20 billion. Barack Obama’s Ponzi scheme is $2 trillion. And if you look at how they work the schemes, they’re very similar. Both falsify their returns, Obama has overinflated what the GDP is gonna be, the economy, how much it’s gonna grow. Even the Congressional Budget Office has said Obama’s numbers are way inflated. And to pay for that, he’s gotta bring in a lot of other scamsters through, Obama does, which in this case really are taxpayers.”

As an example of government swindle, Asman cited the annual $50 billion of fraud and waste in Medicare – the same dollar amount Madoff scammed from investors. “One government program wastes as much as Bernie Madoff,” he pointed out. more...

Why would he? "Obama secretly ends program that let pilots carry guns"

Ok...we need to know who's hand is up Obama's skirt, the banning of pilots ability to carry guns is incomprehensible...so, should we all feel safer now? I know the terrorists will be emboldened by this and that sure sends a chill down my spine...so much for Obama's plastering mid-western states purporting the support of the 2nd amendment.

by RenoCon

Guns on a plane

Obama secretly ends program that let pilots carry guns

Tuesday, March 17, 2009

After the September 11 attacks, commercial airline pilots were allowed to carry guns if they completed a federal-safety program. No longer would unarmed pilots be defenseless as remorseless hijackers seized control of aircraft and rammed them into buildings.

Now President Obama is quietly ending the federal firearms program, risking public safety on airlines in the name of an anti-gun ideology.

The Obama administration this past week diverted some $2 million from the pilot training program to hire more supervisory staff, who will engage in field inspections of pilots. more...

Obama's cap-and-trade energy tax is triple

Obama’s “Cap and Trade” scheme triples click here

Get Involved Click Here to Contact Your Senator

by Americans for Prosperity

"...President Obama is attempting to pass his “Cap and Trade” scheme with only 50 votes in the Senate instead of the 60 required for most legislation by using a Washington procedural trick called “reconciliation.” Click here for an article by Americans for Prosperity’s own Phil Kerpen that provides more details."

"But the bottom line is simple. Unless we act now the Senate may very well use a procedural maneuver to pass this massive Energy Tax called “Cap and Trade” without proper debate and with only 50 votes instead of the 60 that should be required under Senate rules."

"...call your Senator now at 202-224-3121 and demand that the Energy Tax vote on “Cap and Trade” be done without “reconciliation” – for a $1 trillion tax increase the Senate should have to have 60 votes instead of 50!"

Get Involved Click Here to Contact Your Senator

Can you say 1.6T...yeah, thats the AIG swaps trouble

The smoke screen from Obama about the bonuses is appalling enough then we have to consider the other massive problems our government has taken with AIG...not only are the tax payers on the hook for payouts to foreign banks...now it's coming fully around...guess what, the complete global bailout continues with the swaps trouble.

by RenoCon

WORLD OF TROUBLE

AIG COULD BE ON $1.6T HOOK FOR GLOBAL SWAPS

March 19, 2009 | Last updated: 2:03 am | nypost

The investors that own many of the derivative securities at the center of American International Group's collapse are among the world's and this country's biggest investors, sources told The Post.

People familiar with the matter said buyers of AIG Financial Products' derivatives, which consist mostly of collateralized debt obligations tied to mortgages, include Middle Eastern sovereign-wealth funds and the Chinese and Indian governments, which are also among the biggest holders of US Treasury securities.

Exactly how much AIG has in derivative exposure is subject to debate. While AIG's beleaguered CEO Ed Liddy told a House subcommittee yesterday that the insurer's exposure is around $1.6 trillion, others have dismissed that figure as not reflecting actual losses. more...

"Russia, India and China have all announced or clarified major defense programs"

These are serious times, we need a serious leader...a leader that does not keep his eyes on the polls...a leader that is willing to make the tough calls for America...a leader that knows the stakes at hand...unfortunately I don't think that leader is Obama...

by RenoCon

"I seem to smell the stench of appeasement in the air." -Maggie Thatcher

Russia, China preparing new challenges to the United States

By REBECCA GRANT, UPI Outside View Commentator

Published: March 18, 2009 at 10:17 AM

ARLINGTON, Va., March 18 (UPI) -- The balance in international military power may be shifting again. In the last two years, Russia, India and China have all announced or clarified major defense programs that include everything from the development of advanced fighters to upgrading aircraft carriers.

It turns out that adversaries took careful note of the way the United States and its allies used air dominance in all its operations. They reshaped their defense plans to make inroads on that asymmetric advantage. They are building advanced missiles, aircraft and subsystems, and there's also a world market for their best wares. more...

AIG Bonus Outrage is a Distraction @axisofright

The folks at axisofright.com put a focus on how the American people are mislead...the Obama administration would prefer to keep you in the dark and unaware of the socialist/marxist future they have in store for you...mishandled bailouts, national servitude, and hidden medical plans for veterans are but a few in the last two days!!! 

by RenoCon

AIG Bonus Outrage is a Distraction

by SAL on MARCH 18, 2009

in ECONOMY, MEDIA BIAS, POLITICS

The circus that  is the AIG Bonus Outrage is a typical Washington case of wag-the-dog.  The bonuses were retention bonuses to keep employees who were laid off as part of the AIG restructuring, but needed for a specified amount of time for a transition.  AIG was legally-required to pay these bonuses, and it was even written into the stimulus law by Sen. Chris Dodd.  The amount and date of these bonuses have been known for months, yet now the administration expresses “outrage” that $165 million is being used to cover bonuses.

Yet this is simply a distraction and misdirection.  The real outrage should not be about these bonuses, but about the bailout as a whole.  The bonuses are a drop in the bucket of the entire bailout that AIG has received.  CNBC’s Rick Santelli puts the matter in perspective more...

Fed policy...no brass=no bullets

I've seen bare ammo shelves...is this the reason?

Feds undercut civilian supply of ammunition

Policy leaves manufacturers without brass to make bullets

Posted: March 17, 2009 | 9:00 pm Eastern | © 2009 WorldNetDaily

By Drew Zahn

A recent government policy change has taken a bite out of the nation's already stressed ammunition supply, leaving arms dealers scrambling to find bullets for private gun owners.

Georgia Arms is a company that for the last 15 years has been purchasing fired brassshell casings from the Department of Defense and private government surplusliquidators. The military collects the discarded casings from fired rounds, then sells them through liquidators to companies like Georgia Arms that remanufacture the casings into ammunition for the law enforcement and civilian gun owner communities.

But earlier this month, Georgia Arms received a canceled order, informed by its supplier that the government now requires fired brass casings be mutilated, in other words, destroyed to a scrap metal state.

The policy change, handed down from the Department of Defense through the Defense Logistics Agency, cuts a supply leg out from underneath ammunition manufacturers. more...