Posted on 09/01/2009 6:06:45 AM PDT by Kaslin
The Obama administration brags that Cash for Clunkers was a success because it revived the suffering auto industry. But who really benefited from this $3 billion program?
The majority of cars bought with taxpayer-paid incentives of $3,500 to $4,500 each were foreign cars. Toyota and Honda were the big winners.
For years, Americans have been pursuing the goal of self-sufficiency in oil, a natural resource essential to our standard of living. But the effort to get our government to revoke its ban on drilling for oil in American waters off of our shores has been consistently checkmated by the liberals and radical environmentalists.
Now we hear that the Obama administration is letting the U.S. Export-Import Bank lend $2 billion to Brazil's state-owned oil company, Petrobras, to drill for oil in the ocean near Rio de Janeiro. Why Brazil, and why not "drill, baby, drill" in U.S. waters?
We know there is an abundance of oil and natural gas right off of U.S. shores and that drilling would produce good-paying jobs without any need for stimulus handouts. Does the Obama administration oppose this because it's an issue Sarah Palin can run with?
The Obama administration doesn't like criticism, so maybe that's why it is pushing Congress to hurry up and pass the so-called Hate Crimes Act. Being squeamish about criticism is also why the Obama administration launched an un-American project on Aug. 4 as part of what the White House called its "rapid response" Health Insurance Reform Reality Check.
The plan was "to collect and maintain information" on people who criticized the Democrats' health care bill. Obama's friends were instructed to report to the White House email address, flag@whitehouse.gov, any information that they considered "fishy," which everybody understood is a code word to build an Obama political enemies list.
That anti-First Amendment totalitarian project was partly withdrawn as a lawsuit was filed against it by the Association of American Physicians and Surgeons (AAPS) and the Coalition for Urban Renewal and Education (CURE). They charged that the White House project was to "unlawfully" collect information on protected political speech.
The long list of Obama's czars, accountable to no one except Obama himself, is one of his most worrisome and expensive notions. The czars may be substitutes for the nearly half of the Obama administration's executive-branch positions that remain unfilled.
The czars' salaries are paid by the U.S. taxpayers, but they are not confirmed by the Senate, yet they appear to have the authority to override those who are confirmed. Lack of Senate confirmation means we must rely on Glenn Beck to discover that the green jobs czar, Van Jones, is or was a communist and a self-described "rowdy black nationalist."
So far, Obama has appointed 34 czars. Just listing them is enough to scare anyone who believes in constitutional and representative government: Afghanistan czar, aids czar, border czar, car czar, climate czar, copyright czar, cyberspace czar, drug czar, economic czar, education czar, energy czar, executive pay czar, faith-based czar, Great Lakes czar, green jobs czar, Guantanamo closure czar, health reform czar, infotech czar, intelligence czar, Iran czar, Middle East peace czar, non-proliferation czar, Persian Gulf/Southeast Asia czar, regulatory czar, science czar, stimulus accountability czar, Sudan czar, TARP czar, terrorism czar, urban czar, war czar, and WMD and terrorism czar.
At least one Obama pal is functioning in a similar capacity without the awesome Russian title of czar. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who publicly withdrew from the position of secretary of health and human services because of non-payment of income taxes, is providing "outside advice" to the president inside the Oval Office and to top White House officials, while continuing as a highly paid policy adviser to hospital and pharmaceutical clients of a law and lobbying firm.
Daschle is not registered as a lobbyist -- he identifies himself as a "resource" to government and industry. It looks like Daschle has the best of all worlds, both for influence and remuneration.
The senior Senate Democrat, Robert Byrd of West Virginia (who is third in line for the U.S. presidency after Joe Biden and Nancy Pelosi), wrote Obama in February saying that these czar appointments are a power grab by the executive branch and violate both the constitutional system of checks and balances and the constitutional separation of powers. He said they are a clear attempt to evade congressional oversight.
The president is entitled to have his own advisers, but these czars are directly dictating policy, and nobody really knows the extent of their powers. Whatever happened to Obama's campaign promise of transparency?
Rep. Jack Kingston, R-Ga., has introduced the Czar Accountability and Reform Act to cut off the salaries of these czars (estimated at $172,000 plus their staffs of 10-plus people). It's unlikely that the Democratic Congress will let this bill see the light of day.
Why can’t everyone just ignore the Czars. They have no real constitutional authority. If challenged what are they going to do to enforce their mandates ?
bump
Send the brownshirts to pick you up and take you to one of Obama's re-education camps.
Read later
We need a REAL conservative Congress to take back the Executive Power they have given away and cut funding to all the Socialist Agencys.
George Soros purchased an $811 million stake in Petroleo Brasileiro SA (PBR), (better known as Petrobras) in Q2
Link
This is Obama's way of putting a gun to the head of the American Taxpayer (again) and funnelling the money to his Democrat supporters. How else can Obama re-pay the work that Soros has done for him? What? Give his own money?
Unfortunately, I bought my car 16 months ago...and man, did I trade in a 13 year old clunker!!
A classic liberal "solution" strikes the taxpayers once again.
It doesn't solve the problem, doesn't benefit the ones it is supposed to and always hits the taxpayer.
Whatever it takes to get those votes in November, lie, cheat, beg borrow or steal, whatever it takes.
Could have fooled me on that. Our gov't actions would suggest the opposite, that energy independence is not a desired goal. And the drilling moratoriums were extended by the two Bushes. Some Republicans have worked for energy independence, but certainly not all.
its all in violation of the constitution....
We already know of at least five radical leftists currently advising our president —
and these are just the ones who are open about their radical beliefs and far-left ideas:
• Van Jones, green jobs “czar” — admits he’s a communist
• John Holdren, science “czar” — proposed “compulsory sterilization” and forced abortions to control population
• Cass Sunstein, regulatory “czar” — proposed bans on hunting and eating meat
and proposed that your dog to be allowed to have an attorney in court.
And a fairness doctrine for the Internet,
which he has since stepped away from
• Carol Browner, global warming “czar” — was part of Socialist International, a group for “global governance”
• Ezekiel Emmanuel, health care adviser — proponent of the Complete Lives System, which puts values on lives based mostly by age
How many Marxists, communists and anti-capitalists do you have around you on a daily basis?
But President Obama doesn’t just have socialists and communists advising him.
But President Obama doesn’t just have socialists and communists advising him.
On Monday night I told you about the people who helped write the stimulus: the Apollo Alliance.
Jeff Jones, one of the leaders of the Apollo Alliance, may or may not have ever advised the president
— we don’t know because we can’t get the entrance records at the White House.
But we do know this:
Jones’ organization, which he chairs in New York, had a lot to do with the stimulus bill
http://www.freerepublic.com/focus/f-news/2325815/posts
If you are not scared it is time to get scared...
Since these “czars” didn’t “pass muster” in Congress,
who’s paying these clowns...
Obama’s Czar.
Van Jones, green jobs “czar” — admits he's a communist, is waiting in the dark like the rat he is to close down our communications like the radio shows and the Internet..The government wants us to listen to what they tell us,not the truth that Glenn,Rush and Hannity give us..
“Toyota and Honda were the big winners. “
Both of which have non union manufacturing facilities in the US, so there was some upside.
According to Glenn Beck's research Jeff Jones is the co founder along with Bill Ayers of the Weather Underground!!!
Yes I know and that is what is so scary,Obama needs to be called out and called out by the commie press but he won’t be..I guess these commies think they are going to be the ones that get all the news when Obama’s Czars take over completely..by then they will all be extinct they will have been used and discarded..but we can’t tell the fools that they won’t listen.. Here is some more stuff on commie Jones.these commies probably have a room to sleep in at the white house so they can be protected by our SS..I really wish the CIA would turn the tables on Obama and his Czars and let us know what they are doing in the White house..
http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=108553
There, FIXED!
“Whatever happened to Obama’s campaign promise of transparency?”
It was apparent at the time, and now, that 0 was lying. Liberal, wannabe despots who appeal to the pseudo intellectuals of the state media are allowed to do that. Everyone knows that liberals have to lie to the ignorant masses in order to give them the Socialist fantasy they don’t want and don’t need.
Cash for Clunkers was a bad program with unintended consequences.
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