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We've set up a "Stop the Spending" group on Facebook for people to join and get their friends involved...and add link to places where they can make a difference. Click here to join - then pass it onBarack Obama will be proposing his first annual budget this week. An annual budget of almost FOUR TRILLION dollars! In the past year we've added trillions of dollars to our national debt - which is currently over TEN TRILLION and counting! America's taxpayers simply must rise up and so "No More!" Click here to join - then pass it on today!

BATON ROUGE -- One out of every 55 Louisiana residents is behind bars, a higher incarceration rate than any other state, according to research released today by a Washington, D.C., nonprofit group. One in 26 Louisiana adults is under correctional control, if probation and parole are included, the group found. The Pew Center for the States study of 2007 U.S. Census data found that Louisiana's incarceration rate spiked by 272 percent since 1982. That rate of increase is far from the nation's highest of 357 percent in North Dakota, and not far from Mississippi's 256 percent increase. Neighbor states Texas...

After an absolutely astounding January,  February was a down a bit, but it was still very respectable nonetheless!  I'd like to take a moment to tell you all, my Wacky Smacker friends, how much I appreciate the 15 minutes a day you give to this cause.  I really, truly mean it when I say we could not do this without each and every one of you who helps.  And if this is your first time to check out a YouTube Smackdown thread, we would love to have you smacking with us.  The more the merrier!   So let's get to...

The Obama administration announced Sunday it would keep all options on the table as it prepares to battle Republican lawmakers over a massive budget that stands to usher in historic changes in energy and health-care reform. Peter Orszag, the director of the Office of Management and Budget, refused to rule out the possibility the Obama administration would press for the use of a questionable Senate tactic in which just 50 senators would be needed to pass the controversial changes. The comment was a clear indication the White House is expecting a bruising battle over the legislation. By using the budget...

Books do not sell themselves: That is what films are for. "The Reader," the book that inspired the Oscar-winning film, has shot up the best-seller lists. Another recent publishing success, however, has had more help from Washington, D.C., than Hollywood. That book is Ayn Rand's "Atlas Shrugged." Reviled in some circles and mocked in others, Rand's 1957 novel of embattled capitalism is a favorite of libertarians and college students. Lately, though, its appeal has been growing. According to data from TitleZ, a firm that tracks best-seller rankings on Amazon, an online retailer, the book's 30-day average Amazon rank was 127...

A youthful charismatic President . . . an intelligent and photogenic wife . . . cute young children running around the White House . . . accused of being soft on America’s enemies . . . accused of being too inexperienced for the job . . . surrounded by the best and brightest academics. The comparison with JFK was irresistible even before Obama was elected president and hasn’t let up since inauguration. But of course the best analogies between presidents shouldn’t be based on superficial issues like youth and inexperience, or the accusations of political enemies — they should be...

Teresa Estes, a licensed mental-health counselor, watched as business at her private practice dwindled last year. Then the single mother turned to her keyboard to boost her income. Ms. Estes applied to become an "expert" on LivePerson Inc., a Web site where clients pay for online chat time with professionals and advisers of all stripes. For $1.89 a minute -- a rate she set -- the 39-year-old from Marianna, Fla., dispenses advice to clients around the globe. She spends about four hours a day logged on to the service, often at night, when her daughter has gone to bed.

The first 30 days of Barack Obama’s presidency have been the worst for the Dow Jones Industrial Average since 1933. Since Mr. Obama’s inauguration on Jan. 20, stocks have plummeted precipitously. The Dow closed at 7949.09 on Jan. 20, and closed yesterday at 6763.29. The fall is roughly a 14.9 percent loss. During the same period in 1933, the Dow fell from 61.63 to 52.54, a 14.74 percent decrease. Yesterday’s slide landed the Dow at its lowest point in 12 years, on concern about further bailouts for Citigroup and AIG. Mr. Obama championed a $787 billion spending package intended to...

OP-ED: I am trying to capture the spirit of bipartisanship as practiced by the Democratic Party over the last eight years. Thus, I have chosen as my lead, the proposition: Obama lied; the economy died. Obviously, I am borrowing this from the Democratic Party theme of 2003-08: "Bush lied, people died." There are, of course, two differences between the two slogans. Most importantly, I chose to separate the two clauses with a semicolon rather than a comma because the rule of grammar is that a semicolon rather than a comma) should be used between closely related independent clauses not conjoined...

Where is the outrage? CNN Lib DL Ugly makes slanderous Nazi/ Republican comparison.

Under the terms of the deal, Kaupthing, which was Mosaic's previous lender, swapped Mosaic's £400m of debt for around 90pc of the equity of Aurora. The remainder of the equity is held by management. Kaupthing has injected working capital into Aurora. Mr Lovelock said: "We look forward to our continuing relationship with Kaupthing and to the end of a difficult chapter in our history." He thanked the retail group's suppliers for standing by the chain. "I would like to thank our employees and our many suppliers and partners for their understanding and unswerving support. Our recent past has been difficult...

AutoZone Inc.'s fiscal second-quarter net income rose 8.6%, handily beating Wall Street's expectations, as sales were lifted by a wave of cost-conscious customers repairing cars.

By Michael A. Washington Post Staff Writer Tuesday, March 3, 2009; Page A02 President Obama has sent a letter to his Russian counterpart that raises the prospect of the United States halting development of its missile defense program in Eastern Europe if Russia helps resolve the threat posed by Iran's nuclear program, senior administration officials said last night. Obama's letter, delivered to Russian President Dmitry Medvedev in mid-February, "covered a number of topics" of mutual interest to the two countries, "including the issue of missile defense and how it relates to the Iranian threat," a senior administration official said. The...

President Barack Obama's tax proposal – which promises to increase taxes for those families with incomes of $250,000 or more -- has some Americans brainstorming ways to decrease their pay, even if it's just by a dollar. In the wake of Obama's tax proposal being unveiled, some Americans are doing everything they can think of to fall beneath the $250,000 mark so they don't have to pay more in taxes under the plan. A 63-year-old attorney based in Lafayette, La., who asked not to be named, told ABCNews.com that she plans to cut back on her business to get her...

The following was forwarded to me by a contact with the Plaintiffs, Mr. Ankeny and Mr. Kruse, of Ankeny v. Daniels; it’s a fascinating “fly on the wall” account of the latest hearing in the eligibility saga:

One of the pillars of German industry, the giant but debt-crippled Schaeffler car parts supplier, was accused yesterday of using hair shorn from at least 40,000 Auschwitz death camp prisoners to make textiles at its factories in Nazi-occupied Poland during the Second World War. The highly disturbing allegations were contained in new evidence unearthed by Polish historians at the Auschwitz museum, who said they had found rolls of fabric made from camp inmates' hair at a former Schaeffler factory in Poland's southern region of Silesia. The discovery was the latest in a series of damaging blows for the ailing Schaeffler...

President Obama, who has been criticized for his plans to sign a pork-laden $410 billion omnibus spending package moving through Congress this week, will release new rules for earmarks prior to signing the bill, the White House said Monday. "The president is going to draw some very clear lines about what's going to happen going forward," White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said. "The rules of the road going forward for those many appropriations bills that will go through Congress and come to his desk will be done differently."

Here we go again. Rush Limbaugh is public enemy No. 1. Liberal bloggers and media chin-strokers are aghast at Limbaugh's statement that he hopes Barack Obama fails. Well, given what Obama wants to do, I hope he fails too. Of course I want the financial crisis to end -- who doesn't? But Obama's agenda is much more audacious. Pretty much every major news outlet in the country has said as a matter of objective analysis that Obama wants to repeal the legacy of Ronald Reagan and remake the country as a European welfare state. And yet people are shocked that...

David Brooks, columnist at the New York Times, announces that "Barack Obama is not who we thought he was." Thanks for nothing, Mr. Brooks. You cheered Obama into office along with all the other enlightened "moderates" and now you tell us this...Where the hell where you when it mattered?

State Sen. Kim Elton, who helped head the Troopergate investigation, has been appointed to a post in the Obama administration: director of Alaska affairs for the Interior Department. In response, Gov. Sarah Palin began her comments by saying, "Sen. Elton pledged his allegiance to President Obama last summer." Seems an odd way to start a statement in which you're wishing the man well, no? Could Palin be perturbed with Elton because of his role in Troopergate? Those who followed the Troopergate drama last fall will remember that Elton, a Democrat, chaired the Legislative Council. The council hired Stephen Branchflower to...