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<p>No link for this as I just heard this being reported on FOX News. It appears that some liberal lawmakers, Charlie Rangel, David Obey and a couple of others may be proposing a "War Tax" on the wealthiest of Americans to pay for any upcoming troop surge in Afghanistan.</p>

Rep. Obey Warns President Obama He Will Ask Taxpayers to Pay for War, Should More Troops Be SentThe powerful chairman of the House Appropriations Committee has a stark message for President Obama about Afghanistan -- sending more troops would be a mistake that could "wipe out every initiative we have to rebuild our own economy." "There ain't going to be no money for nothing if we pour it all into Afghanistan," House Appropriations Chairman David Obey told ABC News in an exclusive interview. "If they ask for an increased troop commitment in Afghanistan, I am going to ask them to...

From the good congressman's website: I will be will fielding questions on healthcare reform during a District-wide Telephone Forum on Monday, August 31st. This follows an earlier healthcare discussion that I participated in on August 3rd with the Coalition of Wisconsin Aging Groups in Superior. By allowing thousands of people from all across the Seventh District to participate from their own homes, a telephone forum is the most constructive way to involve the largest number of people possible in a good discussion on this important topic. I know folks have a lot of questions and concerns about healthcare reform. I’m...

I recently wrote a critique of the art community’s lack of dissent in the face of many controversial decisions made by the current administration. Entitled “The Artist Formerly Known as Dissident,” one of the key points argued in the article was the potential danger associated with the use of the art community as a tool of the state. Little did I know how quickly this concern would be elevated to an outright probability. Sometime between when I finished the critique and when it went live online, I was invited by the National Endowment for the Arts (NEA) to take part...

<p>A Florida teenager could face felony vandalism charges for allegedly gluing posters depicting President Obama as the Joker onto public property, FOXNews.com has learned.</p> <p>Clermont, Fla., Police Capt. Eric Jensen said the state attorney will review evidence to determine whether to charge the unidentified teenager with gluing "dozens" of the posters last week to the city's light poles, public and private buildings, bridge overpasses, road signs and a mailbox.</p>

Washington - They're known as "monuments to me," airports, bridges and courthouses named after the lawmakers who secured the federal funds to build them. Dave Obey says he won't allow any more earmarks for such projects - even though his name is already etched on a building back home in Wausau.The David R. Obey Center for Health Sciences at Northcentral Technical College features a water wall, atrium and a state-of-the-art surgical suite. It was constructed thanks to a $20 million earmark the Wisconsin congressman tucked into a federal spending bill in 2001.Obey did not specify that the building be...

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey (D-Wis.) and Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) engaged in a late-afternoon shouting match on the House floor after Obey reportedly rebuffed Waters on an earmark request, aides and witnesses said. Witnesses, speaking on condition of anonymity, said it appeared that Waters pushed or shoved Obey. ... The two veteran Democrats — each pugnacious and 71 years old — began shouting, with the L.A.-area congresswoman following Obey around the chamber, reportedly suggesting he channel the vocational money through a local school district. At some point, they collided, witnesses say, with one Obey ally claiming the lean...

Two Democrats got into a verbal altercation — and according to one a physical one — on the floor of the House on Thursday night over an appropriations earmark one was seeking. After the House floor had largely cleared following a series of votes, Rep. Maxine Waters (D-Calif.) and Appropriations Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) split apart from a heated conversation and began yelling at one another. “You’re out of line,” Waters shot while walking down toward the well. “You’re out of line,” Obey shot back before turning and walking away. But then Obey stopped, turned back toward Waters, and shouted:...

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid on Tuesday reiterated the desire of Senate Democrats to close the military prison at Guantanamo Bay, dismissing any funding conflict with the House. Reid (D-Nev.) downplayed the significance of Monday’s decision by House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) against including $80 million in a $94 billion supplemental spending bill to close the prison in Cuba. . . . . . But Reid distinguished the funding conflict from any disagreement over whether to close the prison, reminding reporters that 2008 GOP presidential nominee John McCain (R-Ariz.) has also expressed a desire to close the facility....

House Appropriations Committee Chairman Dave Obey threw a bucket of cold water on the Obama administration’s foreign policy agenda Thursday, admitting serious doubt about success in Afghanistan and Pakistan and no appetite for helping the International Monetary Fund until European allies do more to stimulate their economies.

STRAIGHT FROM CPAC: A Speech for the Ages From Rush Cal Thomas: Rush Limbaugh’s extemporaneous speech to CPAC was a tour de force. It was Reagan-plus. It had vision, passion, humor, ridicule (not only for liberals, but for “conservatives” and Republicans who want to accommodate rather than dominate) and power. Congressional Republicans and those who seek the presidency ought to listen and re-listen to this speech. Rush embodies real leadership: he knows where he wants the country to go and he is unapologetic about giving directions. He properly ridiculed liberals for their abject and proven failure to deliver the poor...

What do you do if you're a street artist turned marketing phenom who uses other people's images when someone uses one of your designs? If you're Shepard Fairey, apparently, you call your lawyers. Fairey, of Obama HOPE poster fame, is defending himself against charges he infringed on an Associated Press copyrighted photo in making the poster. He's also been criticized by artists for using others' work without attribution. His lawyers claim in the AP case that he is protected by fair use provisions of the copyright law. It turns out, however, that the activist art appropriator is a wee bit...

Via Breitbart, the “logic” of panic as articulated by Congress’s cuddliest Democrat. An even more glorious soundbite than Mitch McConnell’s yardstick for measuring a trillion dollars, I think you’ll agree. But is it more glorious than this? Recounting a conversation he had with Obama in the Oval Office earlier in the week regarding the economic stimulus bill and other matters, Biden said the two came to the realization that: “If we do everything right… there’s still a 30 percent chance we’re going to get it wrong.”

WASHINGTON (AP) — House Republicans are questioning a section of the economic stimulus package that routes nearly $2 billion to national parks, saying the money could be a hidden pet project for the son of a powerful Democratic lawmaker. A spokeswoman for Democratic Rep. David Obey of Wisconsin, chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, said Obey's son, Craig, does not lobby the committee, and the parks proposal came from the head of an environment subcommittee. Craig Obey, a senior vice president of the National Parks Conservation Association, is a top lobbyist for the nonprofit group, which made public appeals for...

A top House Democrat is under fire about something specific in the stimulus bill — money that goes to the cause for which his son lobbies. The stimulus gives $2.25 billion to national parks. The Washington Times reports Craig Obey — son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey — is the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association.

A top House Republican is demanding an investigation into whether the more than $2 billion for national parks in the House stimulus package is proper in light of the fact that the chief lobbyist for the National Parks Conservation Association is the son of House Appropriations Committee Chairman David R. Obey.

Heard this on Rush Limbaugh - The Washington Times is reporting on this (direct link to Washington Times):EXCLUSIVE: Stimulus has plum for lawmaker's son I already posted the Washington Times article (Free Republic link):EXCLUSIVE: Stimulus has plum for lawmaker's son

I think the thing the shocks me more than anything about the chutzpah of the Democrats is that the American people are so ignorant. Poll after poll has shown an utter contempt for the Pelosi/Reid-led Congress yet we as voters allowed this farce to play out. Those who have been paying attention are appalled that we are allowing the same leadership that got us into this mess to attempt to spend our way out of it and spend on ridiculous, non-stimulative things.

The $825 billion economic stimulus package rolled out by Democrats on Thursday might not be enough to prevent an economic catastrophe, according to the chief architect of the package. House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) also told reporters it may not be the last effort to use big government spending to spur the economy. “This represents the largest effort by any legislative body in the world to take government action to prevent economic catastrophe,” Obey said, “and even that may be insufficient alone.” Later in his briefing, he added, “This product may undershoot the mark.” The bill could be...

Smith has staked his claim to play the role, even before Barack Obama has been inaugurated as president. Speaking at the premiere of his new film Seven Pounds at the Empire, Leicester Square, in London, Smith laughed about reports that the US President-elect had indicated that he would like the actor to play him if his life story were ever to be made into a movie.

Remind me to drink more Coke.

Rep. David Obey (D-Wisconsin) is conducting a poll on his web page asking "Should Congress enact a second stimulous package to spur economic growth?" Currently, respondents aren't showing much confidence in Congress, and perhaps for good reason, as the poll results show 67% voting NO and 28% voting YES. Apparently the public is losing favor with Congress who, many feel, helped create the financial problem in the first place. Rep. Obey is chairman of the Appropriations Committee.

Have you seen the new Pepsi logo? It's also all over the NBC sporta desk tonight where Olberbite & Costas are sitting. Not that I ever drank it but no more Pepsi for me.

Denver -- Artist Shepard Fairey says that he looks for subjects that are "authentic" -- and Illinois Sen. Barack Obama proved an inspiration on that count. So he created the "Hope" political portrait that, more than any, has become the icon of the Democratic presidential candidate. We sat with him last night [August 2008] at the Manifest Hope Gallery, site of the "Unconventional Convention," and talked about his role in the making of a political icon. Hundreds thronged Mayor Gavin Newsom's gathering celebrating art and artists inspired by Obama. The gift to party-goers: a poster of Fairey's now-familar image of...

ABC News' Matthew Jaffe Reports: As Election Day looms just over two weeks away, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., said Saturday that with Republicans firing "vicious" and "dangerous" attacks at Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., voters are "having a difficult time" opting for the man who would become the nation's first African American president. "Undecided people are having a difficult time just culturally making the change, making the move for the first African American president in the history of the United States of America," the Democratic vice-presidential nominee said at a San Francisco fundraiser Saturday evening. "So we need to respond. We...

From Barack Obama's official website: “I wanted to make an art piece of Barack Obama because I thought an iconic portrait of him could symbolize and amplify the importance of his mission. I believe Obama will guide this country to a future where everyone can thrive and I should support him vigorously for the sake of my two young daughters. I have made art opposing the Iraq war for several years, and making art of Obama, who opposed the war from the start, is like making art for peace. I know I have an audience of young art fans and...

From left to right: Will Croswell, of the Washington D.C. area; Andrew Butash, of Scranton, Pennsylvania; Byron Hodkinson, from Melbourne, Austrailia; and Charlie Smith, also from the Washington D.C. area, greeted Sen. Obama in Virginia Friday. (Photo Credit: Sasha Johnson/CNN) ROANOKE, Virginia (CNN) — The new symbol of the McCain campaign: the plunger. As Democratic nominee Barack Obama pulled into the Roanoke Civic Center on Friday, he was greeted by the usual McCain campaign supporters that show at Obama rallies. But this time, those waving McCain-Palin signs were joined by dozens of people waving standard-issue plungers. Some wore white...

KANSAS CITY - Missouri voter Mary Kay Green has had enough. The supporter of Democratic presidential nominee Barack Obama filed a lawsuit this week over what she claims is dangerous “hate speech” coming from the rival campaign of Republican presidential nominee John McCain. Green, a 66-year-old grandmother and “semi-retired” civil rights attorney, filed the lawsuit in U.S. District Court in Kansas City this week accusing McCain, his running mate Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin and their campaign manager Rick Davis of “intentionally, recklessly and irresponsibly” portraying Obama “as un-American, a terrorist by association, and ‘not like us,’ a non-white individual.” Palin,...

Among the images that greeted visitors to the John McCain campaign office in Pompano Beach this week was a sign headlined "Barrack Hussein Obama” that compared the Democratic presidential candidate to Karl Marx, Adolf Hitler and Fidel Castro. Shown a picture of the sign Thursday night, Broward Republican Chairman Chip LaMarca said he was "disgusted" by it and would immediately go to the office and remove it. "I'm speechless at the ignorance," LaMarca said. "It's not something we can condone. "We're trying to promote positive messages for our candidates. I understand people want their candidate to win. It's ridiculous. I'll...

WASHINGTON - House Democrats will allow a quarter-century ban on drilling for oil off the Atlantic and Pacific coasts to expire next week. Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey is telling reporters that language continuing the moratorium will be omitted this year from a spending bill to keep the government in operating funds after Congress recesses for the election.

Congressman David Obey (D-Wisconsin), in a reply to a constituent's letter given to me recently, gave five reasons why the price of energy is high:1. The rapid economic growth of populous countries around the world - like China and India - has increased worldwide demand for oil and that has caused upward pressure on price.2. This Administration's economic policies, including borrowing more than $1 trillion to finance tax cuts (with a huge percentage of those going to the most well off in our society) and borrowed almost $600 billion topay for the Iraq war, have driven down the value of...

When it comes to the end times, there isn't much that I agree with Hal Lindsey about. Hal Lindsey, author of the huge (and phenomenally misguided) "Late Great Planet Earth" and rapture promoter wrote a column last week comparing the reception received by Barack Obama on his world tour to the reception that the Antichrist will one day receive. After describing some of the detail of Obama's trip, Lindsey says this: And the Bible says that such a leader will soon make his appearance on the scene. It won't be Barack Obama, but Obama's world tour provided a foretaste of...

That was House Speaker Nancy Pelosi's catchphrase last week as she continued to grope for an energy policy. One of her ideas was to request "a small drawdown" in the Strategic Petroleum Reserve, no irony intended. At least President Bush has finally called the Speaker's bluff by rescinding the 1990 executive ban on offshore energy exploration. With Mr. Bush's belated decision yesterday, Congress's moratorium on offshore drilling is now the last major political barrier to increasing domestic oil-and-gas production. Yet Democratic leaders have refused to schedule even a single hearing on the topic. House Appropriations Chairman David Obey recently shut...

Barack Obama has published an enemies list and conspiracy web on his presidential campaign website, Fight the Smears.The site lists conservative activists David Bossie, Floyd Brown, Bob Perry, Craig Shirley, Bruce Hawkins and James Lacy.The Obama campaign posted an accompanying graphic that lays out a web of connections between the conservatives, groups they represent and their efforts opposing liberals, including "Swift Boat", "Clinton Impeachment" and "Willie Horton Ad".The text never connects any of those listed to 'smears' against Obama, but instead lists their politcal sins such as working with the Minutemen, Ann Coulter, Gary Aldrich, donating to the Swift Boat...

The owners of a small South End gallery say they had the best of intentions when they commissioned a famous and often mischievous street artist to install a massive political mural on a construction wall lining one of the artiest strips of the South End. The mural, 13 feet high and nearly a block long, features multiple composite portraits of Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and Abraham Lincoln, their faces melded together in a rainbow of colors. It is meant, the gallery said, to inspire dialogue. That it did. The morning after artist Ron English and his band of...

Fairey’s $400k for Obama June 9, 2008 Back in January we posted on Shepard Fairey’s posters in support of the Barack Obama campaign. At the time, some comments cast doubt over how effective the posters would be. Not only is Obama now assured of the Democratic nomination but, we can reveal, sales of Fairey’s posters (shown above) raised over $400,000 to help him get there… Of course the posters in themselves, we assume, played only a very minor role in securing the nomination (although if anyone wants to conduct a poll on voter intentions versus coolness of poster design we’d...

This Month in Advertising Buzz up! The ad man behind Guitar Hero and Nike takes a subversive look at American ideals in his new book, E Pluribus Venom. As a graphic designer, Shepard Fairey has helped market some of the biggest names around: Nike, Zeppelin, Guitar Hero. And with his new book, E Pluribus Venom (Gingko Press, $30), Fairey has taken to branding America’s great national ideals -- capitalism, nationalism, militarism -- with a series of subversive ads. You won’t find much of the clear-eyed optimism of Fairey’s Obama posters (not included in the book), but you will find America....

“Exercise of editorial control” makes Obama 100 percent responsible for his site’s hate speech against Jews, pro-Clinton Black people, and seniors We created our own blog at my.barackobama.com, which carries the following disclaimer: “Content on blogs in My.BarackObama represents the opinions of community members and in no way should be interpreted as endorsed or approved by the campaign.” By deleting our blog and disabling our account, the Obama campaign just blew its disclaimer and can now be held 100 percent responsible for the anti-Semitic, racist, misogynist, and ageist hate speech it allowed to stand (in some cases for more than...

Is Barack Obama the Messiah? Lots of people have pon dered the possibility. There are Web sites dedicated to the question; Google "Is Barack Obama the Messiah?" and you'll get more than 35,000 hits. (Enter just the words "Messiah" and "Obama" and you'll get nearly 10 times that.) Since Obama declared his candidacy, there have been remarkably few biblical plagues. And lions and lambs seem open to bilateral negotiations. Obama's apostles are hard to dismiss. Oprah simply calls him "The One," because "we need politicians who know how to be the truth." (Jesus says in John 14:6 "I am the...

BEGIN TRANSCRIPT RUSH: Newsweek magazine, the new cover. The cover is of Obama, and they put another halo on his head! The original picture did not have a halo, but the wife of editor Jon Meacham walked in, saw it, didn't like it. So Newsweek changed the cover photo of Obama with a halo and a bright light behind him because the editor's wife didn't like the original. (playing of Obama Messiah spoof) END TRANSCRIPT

Barack Obama's campaign has been all about image. The well-dressed, impeccably groomed, and elegantly articulate speaker was able to speak of hope, change, and unity, and for awhile the public bought it. Capitalizing on the huge store of guilt, compassion, and hope for better racial relations among the vast majority of Americans of all races, Obama posed as the man who might heal the wounds of the past. The bonhomie lasted for months, as the press corps, no strangers to their own guilt and hope and leftist inclinations, averted its eyes from those elements of his politics and life story...

From Shailagh Murray's pool report on Obama's visit to the Italian Market in Philadelphia, where he met an extremely persistent photograph-seeker: Run in #1: outside the first shop, on the way in Man: Senator can I have a quick picture with you. (Obama has his arm on the guys arm in a very nice way, like he does when he shakes peoples hand) but Obama refuses to take a picture and walks away.) Man: It will take you two seconds. Don't cram me, I'm not doing anything to anybody. Jesus. Run in #2: after the first shop Man: "Senator can...

It's a free country, and if Barack Obama's campaign wants to make money from posters ($70 a pop!) designed by the artist Shepard Fairey, they can go right ahead. (The candidate himself thanked the artist, and said that his "images have a profound affect on people, whether seen in a gallery or on a stop sign." You know, because they're put on stickers and posted all over public property.) And I'm sure I'll be told that the artist uses Communist propaganda imagery in an ironic way, or a satirical way, or in a way of making a pro-freedom political statement...

There is an organization attempting to stand in the way of the transformation of the US military into a more efficient, more effective, high technology force. That organization is the so-called Project On Government Oversight—POGO for short. Consider that the San Francisco Bay Area Progressive Directory lists POGO’s web site as a favorite web site. Hmmm. If the San Francisco Bay Area Progressive Directory likes POGO, something must be rotten.

Murtha denounces Defense Department for 'scaring peoplin funds fight WASHINGTON - In their latest tussle with the White House on the Iraq war, two leading House Democrats said Tuesday the Pentagon was using scare tactics to try to goad Congress into passing another war spending bill. And Reps. David Obey and John Murtha said they won't bite. Obey, D-Wis., chairman of the House Appropriations Committee, and Murtha, D-Pa., head of the panel's Defense Appropriations Subcommittee, said they won't support more money for the war this year unless President Bush accepts a timetable for troop withdrawals. Story continues below ↓advertisement Last...

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) announce that she is “giving the president one last chance to agree to a plan to withdraw US troops from Iraq. Her Iraq War funding bill would appropriate $50 billion for the troops, but only on condition that the President accede to Democrats’ demands that he start pulling them out immediately and complete the withdrawal by the end of 2008. “This may be our last chance to decide the outcome of this war,” Pelosi said. “The situation in Iraq is very unstable and there are signs that the tide may have turned permanently against us....

WASHINGTON - House and Senate negotiators agreed Tuesday on a $460 billion Pentagon bill that bankrolls pricey weapons systems and bomb-resistant vehicles for troops, but does not pay for combat operations in Iraq and Afghanistan. Republicans said the omission would impose an unnecessary strain on troops, but the Democratic majority said it wouldn't leave the military in the lurch. "We'll take it step by step," said Rep. John Murtha, chairman of the House Defense Appropriations Subcommittee. "The public wants this war over." House Democrats said they were considering separate legislation that would allot some $50 billion in war spending. Murtha,...

If violence is decreasing in Iraq, it may be because insurgents “are running out of people to kill,” House Appropriations Committee Chairman David Obey (D-Wis.) said Monday. “There are fewer targets of opportunity,” Obey said in a speech to the National Press Club. Obey was responding to a question about reports touted by Republicans that security is improving in Iraq and that President Bush’s “surge” strategy is working. He stressed that military success has not led to political reconciliation. “The issue has never been military,” Obey said. “The issue has always been political improvement.” As the House’s top appropriator, Obey...