Over 40 impromptu Tea Parties took place throughout the country over these past few days.  No, this is not the usual party of old ladies sitting on the veranda sipping black pekoe watching the grass grow.  This is in response to the stimulus package, one of those unintended consequences of government gone mad.   The citizenry has been stimulated to get out of their homes and express their displeasure with the federal government, specifically with the democrat controlled congress under Obama, the community organizer.  What they’re saying is "leave the organizing to us."  

Though even a year ago it would’ve been a slow and difficult process to chronicle a widely scattered protest such as this, the online community is now mastering the art of high-speed media sharing, a trend that can unite geographically disparate communities via the Web. Much of the sharing is now facilitated by the fast-growing messaging site Twitter, where today the keyword "teaparty" was one of the most frequently used terms. Users sent out a flurry of updates about attendance, links to photos on Flickr and Photobucket, and videos on YouTube and other sites. 

The protests appeared to be rather small and did not attract much coverage in the mainstream new media. But interested observers had a remote window into the activities taking place in cities such as Tulsa, Okla., Austin, Texas, Nashville, Chicago, Lansing, Mich., Houston, Hartford, Conn., and Los Angeles, where a group gathered this morning on the Santa Monica pier. (This blog reports that, as a part of that action, former "Saturday Night Live" actor Victoria Jackson read the definition of "socialism").

If social media is a good barometer, it looks like the spending bill is stimulating the citizenry already.   LA Times.

"Somebody in our government needs to finally pay attention," said Fox News Channel host Glenn Beck on his radio program last week. "It is what I’ve been talking about that was coming for a very long time, and that is disenfranchisement, which will turn into anger and then turn into God knows what."

CNBC analyst Rick Santelli is hoping those demonstrations will result in real change.

During the televised segment where Santelli revived the term "tea party," CNBC panelist Wilbur Ross, chairman and CEO of WL Ross & Co., interjected, "Rick, I congratulate you on your new incarnation as a revolutionary leader."

"Somebody needs one," Santelli responded. "I’ll tell you what, if you read our Founding Fathers, people like Benjamin Franklin and Jefferson, what we’re doing in this country now is making them roll over in their graves."

An AP story this morning reports that Obama is ready to tackle the vested interests (lobbyists) to a legislative duel, that will upset the status quo.   Now that sounds good, right?   Washington should get out of pandering to the special interests across the entire spectrum of the economy.   Who has allowed it to continue at an unprecedented rate every year?   Congress.   Who listens to these former government workers now performing lobbying work, about which pork barrel project should get government financial backing?  Congress. 

So, is it congress that Obama is going to come down hard on?  His own liberal democrat congress?   Is it this same congress who Obama is talking about as the ones who are going to see their status quo operations changed? 

No, Obama is speaking to the lobbyists.  Specifically the lobbying efforts of three main segments of the society, the part of the banking industry making student loans available, the insurance companies in the health care industry and the oil companies.  Broadly speaking it’s energy, education and health care.

"The system we have now might work for the powerful and well-connected interests that have run Washington for far too long," Obama said in his weekly radio and video address. "But I don’t. I work for the American people."

Insurance companies will dislike having "to bid competitively to continue offering Medicare coverage, but that’s how we’ll help preserve and protect Medicare and lower health care costs," the president said. "I know that banks and big student lenders won’t like the idea that we’re ending their huge taxpayer subsidies, but that’s how we’ll save taxpayers nearly $50 billion and make college more affordable. I know that oil and gas companies won’t like us ending nearly $30 billion in tax breaks, but that’s how we’ll help fund a renewable energy economy."

Details man, details.  We want to see the devil in the details.  We want to know the how’s, the what’s, the wherefore’s of the details.  We the people demand that the details be available to every member of congress, and the people at home, to read in detail every page of every bill every time before the thing is brought up for a vote by the likes of Pelosi and Reid, using "emergency" as the excuse to vote right now, as it’s that important to get this thing rolling right now today, before the situation gets worse tomorrow.   Enough of that none sense.

Transparency?  Where is it?  

Hey Obama, Mr. President, how about taking on the special vested interests of the national education association who are shouting into your ears about the need for schools to have nicer buildings etc. while neglecting the schools need to have greater accountability by the teachers and administrators to really "educate" our children in the three R’s.   Kids can be taught in one room school houses when the teachers demand performance . . . and, parents demand respect from the kids.

Energy?  Remove the restrictions.

Health Care?  Remove the restrictions.

He’s asking us, the "we the people" to "bring it on," and so, a new movement is gaining momentum.  A new brand of Tea Party.

President Obama is reported as about to announce his pick of Charles Freeman for the top Intelligence spot as chairman of the National Intelligence Council.  A familiar trait of Freeman is that he is not a big fan of Israel and calls Hamas a legitimate movement for Palestinian independence or resistance against occupation.   This guy has quite a history of dealing with Arabs (Muslims). 

For the last dozen years, Freeman, the former US Ambassador to Saudi Arabia, has been President of the Middle East Policy Council (formally known as the American Arab Affairs Council) a lobbying group for the Arab world. One of the group’s primary functions is to publish a quarterly journal called Middle East Policy. The journal is filled with anti-Israel messages that are beyond even the broadest definition of mainstream of U.S. thinking on the region.  Read on . . .  American Thinker

Obama’s new intelligence advisor.  Oh boy, we’re in for it now.  Praising Islam and bashing Israel.  Has Freeman forgotten America is at war with Islamic radicals, those same people who desire to wipe Israel off the face of the earth and defeat the great satan.  That’s us, the US of A.

Charles “Chas” Freeman, a former U.S. ambassador to Saudi Arabia, had business connections with the bin Laden family and their Saudi Binladin Group, a multi-billion dollar construction conglomerate founded by the father of Osama bin Laden. As chairman of Projects International, Inc., a company that develops international business deals, Mr. Freeman asserted in an interview with the Associated Press less than a month after September 11 that he was still “discussing proposals with the Bin Laden Group—and that won’t change.”  Continue. . .

The National Intelligence Council is charged with the task of formulating the National Intelligence Estimates (NIE)-reports that are crucial in the formulation and carrying out of American policy. The importance of this position cannot be overestimated. Freeman will control a board that synthesizes the views of 16 different intelligence agencies in the US government and drafts a report that has the potential to become accepted wisdom and can be guides to future policy. 

An intriguing question.  Why would Obama appoint a man to oversee  intelligence reports who is so anti-Israel and pro Islam?   Well that’s not all folks.  The National Intelligence council, advisors to presidents has some interesting information on their website.  It’s more of the "Lingering Social Inequalities" that Obama is hammering us about his re-distribution ideology.

Even with the potential for technological breakthroughs and the dispersion of new technologies, which could help reduce inequalities, significant social welfare disparities within the developing and between developing and OECD countries will remain until 2020.

Since the announcement of Freeman as Intel thinker, some more digging into the past activities of Freeman has found that he sits on the board of a Chinese Oil company, China National Offshore Oil Corporation, or CNOOC.

Freeman has a long history of involvement with China. He was the principal American interpreter during President Nixon’s historic visit to Beijing in 1972 and was a member of the advance team that opened the U.S. Liaison Office in Beijing in 1973. From 1979 to 1981, Freeman directed Chinese Affairs at the State Department. From that point until 1984, he served as chargé and deputy chief of mission at the American embassy in Beijing.

Freeman is the co-founder of the U.S.-China Policy Foundation, which, according to its website, promotes a greater understanding between American and Chinese policymakers, researchers and government officials. Among the missions of the foundation is to organize the development of China studies in U.S. institutions of higher education.

Freeman has been widely quoted in the media supporting Chinese policies and even penned a piece praising communist Chinese leader Mao Zedong.

Very talented globally centered person, this Freeman person, who will be head of our intelligence thinking and future policy formulation.   His background would have provided him enough time to have learned and be able to talk directly to our Chinese interpreters, and our Arabic translators in the FBI, and the CIA. 

Another globalist on the inside track to the President.

We’ve reached the bottom, the bottom is your bottom, that butt of yours, and the paper you use to wipe-out before getting out.

Extra-soft, quilted and multi-ply toilet roll made from virgin forest causes more damage than gas-guzzlers, fast food or McMansions, say campaigners.  Linked here.

"This is a product that we use for less than three seconds and the ecological consequences of manufacturing it from trees is enormous," said Allen Hershkowitz, a senior scientist at the Natural Resources Defence Council.

"Future generations are going to look at the way we make toilet paper as one of the greatest excesses of our age. Making toilet paper from virgin wood is a lot worse than driving Hummers in terms of global warming pollution." Making toilet paper has a significant impact because of chemicals used in pulp manufacture and cutting down forests.

Can you believe it?  If these people weren’t so serious, it’d be hilarious.   But they really are very serious, and that’s Greenpeace for you.  This far out radical hippie tree hugging group has it’s influence deeply lobbyist entrenched in the high places of not only Washington, but the UN as well, and all around the world to boot.   One of their favorites is that Gore fellow. Next thing we’ll see is the local news channel running educational briefs on how to clean the bottom without paper. 

Well, why not, Adam and Eve never had the luxury of paper rolls behind the trees or shrubs.  I’m sure our wagon trains exploring the west for months at a time ran out of supplies soon after crossing the plains.   So, the tradition could be revived in the spirit of environmentalism.   Snuggle back to the tree instead. 

Who’ll be the first family to kick the TP habit?   CBS may be interested in broadcasting your experience around the world. 

Is this the "get worse before it gets better" part of the recovery and re-investment act, that President Obama said.  The stock market is down just above the 7000 mark and had it’s worst month since 1933, dropping a whooping 937 points, or 11.72% for the month.  A brutal February.  Oh boy, are we heading into deep waters.  Katrina will be no match for the economic upheaval coming down the path if this trend continues.   Six months in a row the DJIA fell from it’s high in September of 13,191.  A year before, the figure closed at an all time high of 14,164.

Obama never did his election bounce.

Along with the stock market going down down down, the federal deficit is going up up and up.  Obama is forecasting the deficit for the budget of 2009 as $1.75 trillion, which measures to 12.3% of our gross domestic product.  That GDP is the sum of all goods and services produced in the country.  Everything, in dollars and no sense.  

Now, all Obama has to do, is to figure out how to reverse both of these trends.  Send the market up and the deficit down.   Tied together, they are. 

In the meantime, the bail-outs are not helping, the pork has yet to be distributed and the check is in the mail, or will be. . . soon.

A New Era of Responsibility is what the Obama administration call the latest era of Washington irresponsibility. 

How can spending the taxes of generations to come be responsible?

Oh sure, he’s only going to raise the taxes on the wealthiest of Americans.   But already the new era has redefined the level of the rich as earning over $250,000 yearly.  What refrains them from redefining the rich level down a bit to $220,000, then 190,000, then down to 175,000.  At what level is the lowest of the lowest?   At the point where Americans really rise up and complain, then your democrat congress could start to use the wealth figures from the UN to justify the latest arbitrary hit ‘em hard tax bracket.  Gee, in some parts of the world if one earns $100 week they are considered rich.  In Nigeria, $900 a year is the average per capita.  Now, you feel guilty.

So how much will President Barack Obama’s budget cost us? The projected 2010 budget of $3.552 trillion can be found on page 114 of the "New Era of Responsibility" budget here.

The US Census bureau estimates that the current US population is 304,059,724. Dividing the $3.552 trillion by that gives us close to the $11,833 that Drudge came up with. ABC’s Jake Tapper reports that there wil be $989 billion in new taxes over the next decade.

I’m an American taxpayer and the starkest figure is what this could cost me. The latest figure I could find for the number of US taxpayers is 138,893,908 returns in 2007 here. By my reckoning, that’s $25, 573.48 each.

Obama budget plan forecasts soaring deficits

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - President Barack Obama forecast the biggest U.S. deficit since World War Two in a budget on Thursday that urges a costly overhaul of the healthcare system and would spend billions to arrest the economy’s freefall.

An eye-popping $1.75 trillion deficit for the 2009 fiscal year dominated attention as Obama unveiled his first budget. That is the highest ever in dollar terms but more importantly to economists, it amounts to a 12.3 percent share of the economy — the largest since 1945.

In less than two years, there will be another election of the House of Representatives, at which time the American voter should cast ballots for a huge 400 person turnover.   Send these wildcats home to find work as lobbyists to the local zoo petting chimpanzees.

As Obama and the democrats have proposed in the latest of the stimulus packages a program to help relive people who have been caught by foreclosure.

Home ownership is now a right, as guaranteed by Washington.  You and every other American (illegal’s too) has the right to own your own home, and it seems you don’t have to keep your payments up to date either.  Do you have the right to own a car?   What if you could not make the payments?   A 56" HDTV?   A can of Campbell’s Tomato soup?   A free kick in the you know what of your favorite congressperson?

Makes sense right?  It sure does to democrats.  Along comes H.R. 1106, Helping Families Save Their Homes Act of 2009, as Sponsored by Rep Conyers, John, Jr. and cosponsored by 24 others.

Read this analysis of the program of keeping families in their homes.

Bankruptcy Mortgage Cramdowns Would Hurt Housing Market

by David C. John

Bad policy is not improved by limiting it to certain situations. The Helping Families Save Their Homes Act (H.R. 1106) would allow bankruptcy judges to reduce the principal owed on a mortgage, a practice often referred to as a "cramdown." Judges would also be able to reduce interest rates or lengthen the term of the mortgage. This is a huge policy mistake that will help only a few people while raising the cost of borrowing for thousands of moderate-income and first-time homebuyers.

Not many of us can really believe that these actions are good for the country, nor not even good for the people who will get relief.   When push gets to shove, it’s time to pray.  Actually, it was time for prayer long before and many of us have been praying for our leaders in Washington on a regular basis, so why are we not seeing any results for our prayers?  

Go back in time to a year ago, when congress passed the first of several billion dollar “stimulus” bills.   That one sent out checks to taxpayers in the form of “tax rebates”  More than 130 million Americans received checks in the mail, which was supposed to stimulate the economy, so that congress would not have to write another one.   Then this fall, congress passed another stimulus bill, $700 billion this time, compared to the measly $168 bill for the one in the spring.  We’re not getting stimulated, yet.

Then, and just passed by the democrat controlled congress with newbie Obama on the throne, congress passes another $789 billion stimulus package full of wish list items from the states and cities.

So far that all adds up to $1,657,000,000,000.   With a “T” for trillion.   Still not enough.  So, that’s not all.  The disease is spreading faster.

Wednesday, the day after Obama gives his first applause getter in front of congress and the nation, congress passes a $410 billion package, supposedly the budget bill for congress.  But this baby goes beyond budget and adds some good ole pork, like $200,000 for a “tattoo removal violence outreach program” in Los Angeles.  It would also kill the DC school choice program.  It’s large enough to increase the budget of the federal government by over 8% across the board.

That’s over 2 trillion special earmarked spending by congress in just a years times.   We’ve become so de-sensitized to the magnitude of a million dollars and then along comes billion and congress don’t even flinch at the thought of spending hundreds of billions, the media questions it not, and the public sits in amazement that it means nothing to our leaders.

“To put a trillion dollars in context, if you spend a million dollars every day since Jesus was born, you still wouldn’t have spent a trillion.”

Updated 02/26 10:45 am CDT  “The Obama administration will announce a 10-year, $634 billion reserve fund Thursday aimed at expanding health care coverage” 

And now the spending is getting close to $3 trillion.

Have you ever witnessed such a blatant disregard for the constitution as what’s been happening over the last couple of decades?  Oh, it really started earlier than that, but the last decade has seen the most misuse and no use at all for following the constitution.  Over time it’s become a "living" document changing at the will of judges and lawmakers to fit some kind of post founding fathers wisdom into a new order higher intelligence formula of warm fuzzy feel goody take away the guilt feelings legalities.

To rectify this train wreck, several states are passing bills exercising their sovereignty rights as stated in the tenth amendment.

NEW YORK – Oklahoma’s House of Representatives is the first legislative body to pass a state sovereignty resolution this year under the terms of the Tenth Amendment.

The Oklahoma House of Representatives passed House Joint Resolution 1003 Feb. 18 by a wide margin, 83 to 13, resolving, "That the State of Oklahoma hereby claims sovereignty under the Tenth Amendment to the Constitution of the United States over all powers not otherwise enumerated and granted to the federal government by the Constitution of the United States."

The language of HJR 1003 further serves notice to the federal government "to cease and desist, effectively immediately, mandates that are beyond the scope of these constitutionally delegated powers."

Several other states are close to passing a similar provision, including Arizona, Hawaii, Montana, Michigan, Missouri, New Hampshire, and Washington. 

"Analysts expect that in addition, another 20 states may see similar measures introduced this year, including Alaska, Alabama, Arkansas, California, Colorado, Georgia, Idaho, Indiana, Kansas, Nevada, Maine and Pennsylvania."  Read on . . .

Oklahoma state Rep. Charles Key argued that whenever "we allow the federal government, or any other government entity, to violate the Constitution, we destroy the Constitution one piece at a time."

"We have gone so far down that path that the Constitution is hanging by a thread right now,"

James Madison in The Federalist wrote:

“”The powers delegated to the federal government are few and defined. Those which are to remain in the state governments are numerous and indefinite. The former will be exercised principally on external objects, [such] as war, peace, negotiation, and foreign commerce. The powers reserved to the several states will extend to all the objects which, in the ordinary course of affairs, concern the lives, liberties, and properties of the people.”

The founding fathers believed in a balance between state and federal power. This state sovereignty movement clearly arises from the belief that the balance of power has tilted too far and for too long in the direction of the federal government and that it’s time to restore that lose balance.

Is there any chance that this could succeed?  What’s surprising to me is to see the state of California on this list, unless they are thinking of dropping the affiliation with the United States, and joining hands with Mexico.   Could this lead to another war between the states?

OLYMPIA, Wash. The state of Washington sent out $1 checks to the 250,000 food stamp recipients in the state.

The director of the Community Services Division for the Department of Social and Health Services, Leo Ribas, says the checks mailed Feb. 17 trigger an additional $43 million in federal food benefits. They also connect recipients to an energy assistance program.

Ribas says the $1 check is a one-time move to leverage the federal money.

Let’s see, add 42 cents for the cost of postage, and how much would you estimate for handling charges?   Administrative costs?    So the government spends roughly 3, perhaps 4 or 5 times as much to get the checks in the mail, so the beneficiaries could get $1.00.   That $250,000 just became a million dollar plus burden on taxpayers.  Perhaps much more.  Government at work! 

For you people in that beautiful State of Washington who voted for these kinds of minds to run the business of the state, then take note as this is demonstrative of how much they really care about you.   $1 dollar worth. 

Leverage? 

Sure, the feds will fall for it too.

Well, gee, the feds started it.

The feds encourages the state into expanding their welfare rolls, as  more and more people on welfare means more and more federal funds.

So, golly my molly, these State people are not that stupid after all.   Spend a buck a head to get $43 mill from the feds.  How many more employees will this add to the state Community Services Division?  What would they have to do to get 100 million, 300 million? 

Oh yea, it’s all part of that program of putting people to work, government work.  Applications can be had at any City, County, State or federal office.