Tags: Happy New Years, 2009 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Wednesday, December 31, 2008
Happy New Years 2009
Tags: Happy New Years, 2009 To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Ending 2008 - Lisa Benson
By Lisa BensonTags: 2008, ending 2008, cartoons, Lisa Benson, political cartoon To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
AG McDaniel's Conflict of Interest
Jason Tolbert on the Tobert Report today ends year 2009 reporting on an Arkansas version of "Chicago style" politics. In summary, we have an elected constitutional officer who is Arkansas Chief Law enforcement officer advocating for and paying for a defeat of constitutional amendment in the past and now espousing that he can defend the very same amendment in a court case now challenging the amendment passed by the citizen's of Arkansas. And we thought their was no shame in Little Rock when Bill Clinton was AG. Below Jason explains about the latest "Dustin dust-up":
Tags: amendments, Arkansas, Attorney General, ballot initiatives, conflict of interest, Dustin McDaniel, Politics To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
After seeing this photograph from the Arkansas Times of Attorney General Dustin McDaniel at a fundraiser for Arkansas Families First, the group formed to oppose Initiated Act 1, I decided to go down to the Arkansas Ethics Commission on my lunch break and take a look at their financial disclosure statements. My hunch was right.
The McDaniel Leadership PAC contributed $1,000 on October 28, 2008 to support Arkansas Families First in their campaign against Initiated Act 1. According to the PAC’s filing with the Arkansas Secretary of State, Dustin McDaniel serves as chairman of this PAC. (As a side note, fellow blogger Blake Rutherford serves as the treasurer.)
This is significant because as the Attorney General for Arkansas, McDaniel’s office now serves as the defense attorney in representing the state of Arkansas against the ACLU’s court challenge of Initiated Act 1. McDaniel’s Chief Deputy Attorney General Justin Allen told the Associated Press yesterday that his office will still be the ones defending the lawsuit.
I cannot help but wonder how someone who has contributed financially for a measure’s defeat can now be the advocate for the people of Arkansas in defense of that passed measure. I am certainly not a lawyer but referring to a borrowed copy of Howard Brill’s “Arkansas Professional and Judicial Ethics,” this appears to be a violation of Rule 1.7 defining a conflict of interest. The rule states “A concurrent conflict of interest exists if …. there is a significant risk that the representation of one of more clients will be materially limited … by a personal interest of the lawyer.”
Is this circumstance not a clear example of this definition? The rule goes on to discuss several requirements for a lawyer to overcome this conflict including if “each affected client gives informed consent, confirmed in writing.” The clients in this case would be a people of Arkansas, particularly the 586,248 Arkansans who voted for the Act. I am not sure how McDaniel is going to pull that one off.
Tags: amendments, Arkansas, Attorney General, ballot initiatives, conflict of interest, Dustin McDaniel, Politics To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Pelosi steers stimulus to all-Dem panel
The Hill reported today that:House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) is giving a committee consisting only of Democrats first crack at the yet-to-be-put-together economic stimulus package. The Steering and Policy Committee, which is co-chaired by two Democrats close to Pelosi, will hold the first hearing on a stimulus when Congress convenes next week, Pelosi announced. No Republicans sit on the panel.
The non-legislative committee — which does not mark up legislation and holds few hearings — will meet on Wednesday, Jan. 7, to consider “the state of the economy and the need for a comprehensive jobs and economic recovery package,” . . . “This hearing will build upon the stimulus package the House passed in September and the numerous hearings held by our other committees, to ensure we make the necessary investments in an innovative and bold way to strengthen the economy,” Pelosi said in a statement announcing the move.
Pelosi and congressional Democrats have committed to crafting a stimulus bill ahead of President-elect Obama’s swearing-in on Jan. 20. Democrats want the massive economic stimulus and jobs bill — which could be as much as $800 billion — on Obama’s desk the day he takes office, and have been working behind the scenes for weeks on the bill’s particulars.
Tags: Democrats, economic stimulus, Nancy Pelosi To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Florida GOP Chairman Considering RNC Chairmanship Bid
Florida state Republican Party Chairman Jim Greer says he is considering adding his name to what is already a half-dozen potential candidates for the Republican National Committee chairmanship. Greer did so in an e-mail sent out to Tuesday to his fellow national GOP committee member. And in an interview today, he said he expects to make his decision after attending RNC events early next week in Washington, including a debate Monday between several of the other hopefuls, in which he will not take part. The party is set to choose its national chairman Jan. 30th in Washington, D.C. . . . . [Greer Considering Run for RNC Chair]Tags: chairman, GOP, Republican National Committee, RNC Chairman To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tuesday, December 30, 2008
Taking Climate “Change” Hysteria with a Grain of Salt
by William WarrenTags: political cartoon, climate change, global warming, William Warren To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
2008 and the Right Online
Eric Odom offers his perspective on gains and losses related to the regards to 2008 and the right online and addresses the growth and relationship building within the the conservative new media during 2008. Generally, he finds many successes that build a foundation to move forward: Relationships, Relationships, Relationships! I think 2008 has been a tremendous year for networking and relationships on the right. With groups like the Sam Adams Alliance and Americans for Prosperity actively engaging the blogosphere and hosting events where face to face conversation occurs, we’ve seen great advances towards a more personal network of activists.Eric goes on to address that "The Republican party has provided a wealth of fuel for eActivists on the right." He addresses the current building success of the #dontgo Movement, the Social Media Platoon, #diggcons, Red County, Rebuild the Party, and TCOT. Eric concludes:
In fact, I would go as far as saying that I’ve met at least 300 bloggers this year that I didn’t know until 2008. Many of those bloggers were meeting other bloggers for the first time in their lives. We saw state based blogger networks come together under one roof for the first time ever in several states. These bloggers now know each other personally, and are far more willing to work together in promoting a message.
Not only are bloggers getting to know one another, but every day eActivists are now networking like never before. This is all happening thanks to social networks and micro-blogging platforms like Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, Google Groups, etc.
In 2007, the center-right movement was virtually non-existent in these realms, but going in to 2009 one might argue that the conservative/libertarian presence in social networks is far more powerful than anyone would have predicted. Indeed, 2008 has been a strong year for the right online.
I think we’ve seen more action within the right online in 2008 than we’ve seen in all previous years combined. Sure, very little of it has actually translated in to offline success, but we’re not ready for that just yet. 2008 was our “foundation building” phase. We needed a foundation build of people, and we’re now getting that in place. I believe 2009 will be the year for that foundation to prove its value. I believe that in 2009 the right online will move mountains.
Tags: 2008, conservatives, new media, Right Online To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Will Obama Ditch Transparency for Stimulus?
by Conn Carroll, Morning Bell, The Heritage Foundation: When Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) first came to power she promised, “the most honest, most open, and most ethical Congress in history.” She has since flagrantly and repeatedly broken this promise. It is part of the reason Congress has record low approval ratings. Now President-elect Barack Obama is also making grand promises to create a more open and transparent government. We hope that, unlike Pelosi, Obama chooses to keep his promise to the American people. But so far the signs are not encouraging.Starting in mid-December Obama’s advisers have huddled with congressional Democrats crafting an economic stimulus plan that is likely to cost the American taxpayers at least $1 trillion. Obama has previously demanded that the stimulus bill be ready to sign by his January 20th Inauguration Day. To meet this deadline Pelosi is considering passing the trillion dollar spending measure without going through the committee process. Her spokesmen Drew Hammill even claims that the House already completed all the necessary due diligence on their trillion dollar gambit last year: “The House has already laid the groundwork for this package with numerous hearings and the bipartisan package passed in September.”
Since Pelosi long ago broke her promise to the American people to govern in an open and transparent manner, the House will probably pass the trillion dollar spending spree by January 12th without holding a single hearing. The story is different in the Senate where Minority Leader Mitch McConnell (R-KY) still has the 40 senators necessary to keep Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) somewhat honest. Yesterday McConnell laid the groundwork for an actual Senate debate on the matter: “Surely the Democrat leadership in Congress doesn’t plan to spend a trillion dollars of taxpayer money — nearly $10,000 in new debt for everyone who pays federal income tax, charged to the credit card for our children to pay — without safeguards, without appropriate hearings to scrutinize how tax dollars are being spent."
Considering that there are scattered reports leaking around the country that the Democrats’ trillion dollar spending spree will include taxpayer money for polar bear exhibits, casino pedestrian bridges, mob museums, and snow-making machines, surely the American people deserve a full inventory of where this trillion dollars will go. We have previously stated our principled opposition to federal spending as a means to stimulate the economy, but at the absolute minimum the Obama administration should take Minority Leader John Boehner (R-OH) up on his request that the entire text of the stimulus bill be available online for a full week before any votes are cast. Otherwise, the very first bill Obama signs will also mark his first broken promise to the American people.
Tags: Barack Obama, economic stimulus, government transparency, Heritage Foundation, Morning Bell To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Monday, December 29, 2008
Global Warming Rope-a-Dope
by Walter E. Williams, FrontPage Magazine: Americans have been rope-a-doped into believing that global warming is going to destroy our planet.Scientists who have been skeptical about manmade global warming have been called traitors or handmaidens of big oil. The Washington Post asserted on May 28, 2006 that there were only “a handful of skeptics” of manmade climate fears. Bill Blakemore on Aug. 30, 2006 said, “After extensive searches, ABC News has found no such (scientific) debate on global warming.” U.N. Framework Convention on Climate Change Executive Secretary Yvo de Boer said it was “criminally irresponsible” to ignore the urgency of global warming. U.N. special climate envoy Dr. Gro Harlem Brundtland on May 10, 2007 declared the climate debate “over” and added “it’s completely immoral, even, to question” the U.N.’s scientific “consensus.”
In July 23, 2007, CNN’s Miles O’Brien said, “The scientific debate is over.” Earlier he said that scientific skeptics of manmade catastrophic global warming “are bought and paid for by the fossil fuel industry, usually.” The global warming scare has provided a field day for politicians and others who wish to control our lives. After all, only the imagination limits the kind of laws and restrictions that can be written in the name of saving the planet.
Recently, more and more scientists are summoning up the courage to speak out and present evidence against the global warming rope-a-dope. Atmospheric scientist Stanley B. Goldenberg of the Hurricane Research Division of the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration said, “It is a blatant lie put forth in the media that makes it seem there is only a fringe of scientists who don’t buy into anthropogenic global warming.”
Dr. Goldenberg has the company of at least 650 noted scientists documented in the recently released U.S. Senate Minority Report: “More Than 650 International Scientists Dissent Over Man-Made Global Warming Claims: Scientists Continue to Debunk ‘Consensus’ in 2008.” The scientists, not environmental activists, include Ivar Giaever, Nobel Laureate in physics, who said, “I am a skeptic … Global warming has become a new religion.” Dr. Kiminori Itoh, an environmental physical chemist, said warming fears are the “worst scientific scandal in the history … When people come to know what the truth is, they will feel deceived by science and scientists.”
“So far, real measurements give no ground for concern about a catastrophic future warming,” said Dr. Jarl R. Ahlbeck, a chemical engineer at Abo Akademi University in Finland, author of 200 scientific publications and former Greenpeace member. Atmospheric physicist James A. Peden, formerly of the Space Research and Coordination Center in Pittsburgh, said, “Many (scientists) are now searching for a way to back out quietly (from promoting warming fears), without having their professional careers ruined.”
The fact of the matter is an increasing amount of climate research suggests a possibility of global cooling. Geologist Dr. Don J. Easterbrook, Emeritus Professor at Western Washington University says, “Recent solar changes suggest that it could be fairly severe, perhaps more like the 1880 to 1915 cool cycle than the more moderate 1945-1977 cool cycle. A more drastic cooling, similar to that during the Dalton and Maunder minimums, could plunge the Earth into another Little Ice Age, but only time will tell if that is likely.”
Geologist Dr. David Gee, chairman of the science committee of the 2008 International Geological Congress, currently at Uppsala University in Sweden asks, “For how many years must the planet cool before we begin to understand that the planet is not warming? For how many years must cooling go on?”
That’s a vital question for Americans to ask. Once laws are written, they are very difficult, if not impossible, to repeal. If a time would ever come when the permafrost returns to northern U.S., as far south as New Jersey as it once did, it’s not inconceivable that Congress, caught in the grip of the global warming zealots, would keep all the laws on the books they wrote in the name of fighting global warming. Personally, I would not put it past them to write more.
See also: Whatever happened to global warming?
Tags: fraud, global cooling, global warming, Walter E. Williams To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Internet Surpassed Newspapers as American News Source
The internet surpassed newspapers as the main source for national and international news for Americans, according to a new Pew Research Center survey released Dec. 23. 2008: The internet, which emerged this year as a leading source for campaign news, has now surpassed all other media except television as a main source for national and international news.However, television was the preferred medium for Americans; 70% of the 1,489 people surveyed said television is their primary source for national and international news. Forty percent said they get most of their news from the internet, up from 24% in September 2007, and more than the 35% who cited newspapers as their main news source. Only 59% of people younger than 30 years old prefer television,, down from 68% in the September 2007 survey.
Tags: international news, Internet, national news, news, newspapers, Pew Research To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Former Border Patrol agents seek last-minute help from Bush
by Anna M. Tunsley, Star-Telegram: Two Border Patrol agents convicted of shooting a Mexican drug smuggler in Texas in 2005 are among the thousands of people seeking last-minute leniency from President George W. Bush before he leaves office Jan. 20. The case of Ignacio Ramos and Jose Alonso Compean has drawn attention as lawmakers and others have asked Bush to commute their prison sentences. . . . Several members of Congress, including Republican Sen. John Cornyn of Texas, who said the agents’ imprisonment was a "miscarriage of justice," have asked Bush to pardon the agents or commute their sentences. . . . Rep. Tom Cole, R-Okla., sent Bush a letter this month telling him that the justice system failed Compean and Ramos and asking him to commute their sentences and give them pardons. Rep. Dana Rochbacher, R-Calif., wrote in HumanEvents.com that "the American people cannot seem to reconcile how two law enforcement officers whose job was to protect our borders from illegal aliens, drug smugglers, human traffickers, and terrorists could end up sitting in solitary confinement . . . for shooting and wounding an illegal alien in the process of smuggling over a million dollars worth of drugs across our Southern border in Texas." . . . (more)See also: Bush springs drug dealers, leaves border agents to rot
Tags: border guards, Ignacio Ramos, Jose Compean, President George Bush, presidential pardons To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Arkansas: On the front line of protecting worker’s votes.
 by K. Ryan James, Washington D.C: Possibly to the chagrin (we think, but are not sure) of Arkansas’s senior senator, the chairman of the state’s Joint Budget Committee, State Sen. Gilbert Baker, is trying to get the right of workers to a secret ballot enshrined in the state constitution. |
The proposed phrasing of this amendment is as follows, with my capitalizations offered for emphasis: “The right of individuals to vote by secret ballot is fundamental. Where state or federal law requires elections for public office or public votes on initiatives or referenda, or designations or AUTHORIZATIONS OF EMPLOYEE REPRESENTATION, the right of individuals to vote by secret ballot shall be guaranteed.”No word from Sen. Blanche Lincoln, yet, on whether the people of Arkansas, via the petition process, should be focusing on fixing the economy instead of focussed on union voting, as per her belief on what the United States Senate should be doing. (Also, no word to date on whether she would blue-slip it.)
Speaking of priorities, it would appear that the Teamsters are privy to the word that Card Check may not make it in the first 100 days.“
We’re hearing [EFCA] probably won’t happen right away, and we feel good about that,” said Leigh Strope, spokeswoman for the International Brotherhood of Teamsters union. “It maybe will not happen in the first 100 days, but we don’t take that as a bad signal.”So that means Sens. Lincoln and (Mark) Pryor of Arkansas may get a bit of a reprieve. Per the Washington Times:
Gerald McEntee, president of the influential American Federation of State, County and Municipal Employees, told The Washington Times in an interview that EFCA was “payback” for the labor movement’s massive campaign effort for Mr. Obama and the Democrats. But he acknowledged the Republican Senate roadblock and the need for Mr. Obama’s coalition to “be more interested in the bigger picture.” But unions expect a full-throttle effort in time on EFCA, he added.
“I think our people have to be able to see that the Democrats, including Obama, are fighting … for these kinds of things and not backing off or backing away,” Mr. McEntee said.
I am also sure that the any Democrat votes in support of the undemocratic Card Check bill might come up in the 70, or so, threatened Democrat seats in the House, as per the chair of the DCCC. I applaud Sen. Baker for his efforts at protecting the rights of workers to a secret ballot. I hope to have the opportunity to vote on amending my home state constitution one day. I also hope to hear from the Democratic members of the Arkansas congressional delegation on whether or not they would support the vote of the people to protect the votes of the workers back home. I shan’t be holding my breath.There are early signs that conservative Democrats and moderate, labor-friendly Republicans may not be anxious for an early fight in 2009 over EFCA, at least in its current form. Sens. MarkPryor and Blanche Lincoln, both Arkansas Democrats, have expressed doubts about the need for quick passage of EFCA.
Sen. George V. Voinovich, an Ohio Republican facing a potentially tough 2010 re-election battle, had been thought a possible Republican vote for cloture. But he told The Hill newspaper this month that he was standing firm against the union bill.“It’s undemocratic,” he said.
Tags: American workers, Arkansas, Blanche Lincoln, Card Check, civil unions, Mark Pryor, union activism, voting rights To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Thursday, December 25, 2008
Merry Christmas & Happy Hanukkah 2008 to Conservatives & Note to Liberals
To All Liberal Friends: Please accept with no obligation, implied or implicit, my best wishes for an environmentally conscious, socially responsible, low-stress, non-addictive, gender-neutral celebration of the winter solstice holiday, practiced within the most enjoyable traditions of the religious persuasion of your choice, or secular practices of your choice, with respect for the religious/secular persuasion and/or traditions of others, or their choice not to practice religious or secular traditions at all. We also wish you a fiscally successful, personally fulfilling and medically uncomplicated recognition of the onset of the generally accepted calendar year 2008, but not without due respect for the calendars of choice of other cultures whose contributions to society have helped make America great. Not to imply that America is necessarily greater than any other country nor the only America in the Western Hemisphere . Also, this wish is made without regard to the race, creed, color, age, physical ability, religious faith or sexual preference of the wishee.
To Our Conservative / Republican Friends: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year! We may or may not post much before the New Year. The Arkansas legislature returns in 2009 and the New Obama administration takes control of the Executive branch in 2009. We are resting up over the holidays and will return prepared to report on National issues, on treats to liberty, and on the political assaults on individual rights and traditional family values anticipated to occure under a Democratic controlled Congress and Arkansas Legislature, the Obama administration and the Little Rock Constitutional offices.
Tags: Democrat, Hanukkah, Happy New Years, 2008, liberal, Merry Christmas, political humor, Republican To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
To Our Conservative / Republican Friends: Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah and a Happy New Year! We may or may not post much before the New Year. The Arkansas legislature returns in 2009 and the New Obama administration takes control of the Executive branch in 2009. We are resting up over the holidays and will return prepared to report on National issues, on treats to liberty, and on the political assaults on individual rights and traditional family values anticipated to occure under a Democratic controlled Congress and Arkansas Legislature, the Obama administration and the Little Rock Constitutional offices.
Tags: Democrat, Hanukkah, Happy New Years, 2008, liberal, Merry Christmas, political humor, Republican To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Prince of Peace by Gary Varvel
Tags: 2008, Christmas, Gary Varvel, Cartoon To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Wednesday, December 24, 2008
The Nativity Story
Tags: Christmas, Nativity Story To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Christmas Eve Cartoons - by Lisa Benson
Thank you Lisa BensonTags: Christmas, Lisa Benson, political cartoon To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Birth Of Christ And The Birth Of America Are Linked
by Dr. Chuck Baldwin: As we approach the celebration of Christ's birth, I am reminded of the words of John Quincy Adams. On July 4, 1837, he spoke these words: "Why is it that, next to the birthday of the Savior of the world, your most joyous and most venerated festival returns on this day? ... Is it not that, in the chain of human events, the birthday of the nation is indissolubly linked with the birthday of the Savior? That it forms a leading event in the progress of the Gospel dispensation? Is it not that the Declaration of Independence first organized the social compact on the foundation of the Redeemer's mission upon earth. That it laid the cornerstone of human government upon the first precepts of Christianity, and gave to the world the first irrevocable pledge of the fulfillment of the prophecies announced directly from Heaven at the birth of the Savior and predicted by the greatest of the Hebrew prophets six hundred years before?"Adams was exactly right: America's birth is directly linked to the birth of our Savior. In fact, the United States of America is the only nation established by Christian people, upon Biblical principles, and dedicated to the purpose of religious liberty. This truth is easily observed within America's earliest history.
America's forebears first established a written covenant with God as early as November 11, 1620, when they penned The Mayflower Compact. It states in part:
"In the name of God, Amen. ... Having undertaken, for the Glory of God, and Advancement of the Christian Faith, and the Honour of our King and Country, a voyage to plant the first colony in the northern parts of Virginia; do by these presents, solemnly and mutually in the Presence of God and one of another, covenant and combine ourselves together into a civil Body Politick, for our better Ordering and Preservation, and Furtherance of the Ends aforesaid; And by Virtue hereof to enact, constitute, and frame, such just and equal Laws, Ordinances, Acts, Constitutions and Offices, from time to time, as shall be thought most meet and convenient for the General good of the Colony; unto which we promise all due submission and obedience."The sentiments and statements of America's founders make it clear that this nation has enjoyed a love and appreciation for the rights and freedoms recognized in Natural Law that is unique in the annals of human history. No other people have such a heritage. One thing America's founders could not envision was--after they had paid so terrible a price to purchase our liberties--that the time would come when their posterity would be denied the basic freedoms to publicly express their reverence for God. Never could they have imagined that the day would come when citizens of the sovereign states (each with a state constitution protecting religious liberty) would be denied their right to pray in school, or place Nativity scenes on public property, or hang copies of the Ten Commandments on courthouse walls.
I am also confident that America's founders would be completely repulsed by the way the United States has jumped headlong into corporatism, socialism, and globalism. Democrats and Republicans alike have created a central government so large that it would be unrecognizable by any Founding Father. In addition, both Big Business and Big Religion have sold our great country down the proverbial river, as surely as there is a sun in the sky. Truly, our Founding Fathers must be rolling over in their graves.
Therefore, at this Christmas season, let us remember well the founding principles of these United States of America. Furthermore, let us renew with vigor the fight for freedom before our liberties and our heritage are gone altogether. Merry Christmas!
Tags: Christmas, 2008, Chuck Baldwin, founding principles, John Quincy Adams To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tuesday, December 23, 2008
When Pigs Fly
by Isaac MacMillen, contributing editor of ALG News Bureau: The 2008 deficit is already at a projected $1 trillion—with the potential to reach $1.5 trillion, if Congress passes the massive stimulus bill now under consideration. Jobless rates—and claims—continue to rise. Over 11,600 pork projects—costing upwards of $17 billion—were included in bills this year…And Congress just ended the year by giving itself a 2.8 percent pay raise. The $4700/member raise would go into effect in January of 2009, raising the average congressional salary to $174,000. The raise is part of an automated process incorporated in a bill Congress passed in 1989. While some members of Congress sponsored legislation to stop the pay raise, it failed to gain enough support for passage. Concerned citizens of diverse organizations are decrying the raise, given the state of the nation’s economy and the performance (or lack thereof) of the members of Congress. The Senior Citizen League’s Daniel O’Connell spoke out against the hypocrisy of the raise. “As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain,” he stated in a press release by the organization.
Citizens Against Government Waste (CAGW) president Tom Schatz had even harsher criticism. "If Congressional leaders believe that the taxpayers should gives pay raises to this rogue's gallery of ineptitude and venality, they ought to step away from the spiked egg nog,” he stated, after saying that Congress didn’t deserve “one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009.”
Both the Senior Citizen’s League and CAGW—among others—have called for Congress to freeze its pay. And there’s actually some (limited) precedence for such an act of conscience. Under intense pressure, lawmakers froze pay in 2000, and again (temporarily) in 2006.
Beyond the pay raise issue, however, this controversy reveals something deeper about Congress—their attempts to go out of the way to avoid blame for unpopular measures. In other words, unwillingness to take responsibility. If Congress truly wanted to be held accountable, they would vote each time they wanted a pay raise. If the people thought they performed well—a good source might be approval ratings—then they could consider a small raise. But if their performance is unpopular—and ineffective, as it is now—they have no business lining their own pockets after picking the nation’s.
Yet in spite of—or rather because of—this fact, Congress has attempted to shirk much of the blame that would arise had they actually voted on the pay raise. Vacationing members of Congress, besieged by enraged constituents, will be able to honestly say that they “did not vote for the pay raise.” While technically true, it would also true that they did nothing to stop it, but rather allowed it to happen unopposed. The few who attempted to repeal the 2008 raise should be commended, as well as those under the table and who voluntarily decline the pay raise. But the remainder—the majority—of Congress must know that it will be held responsible for its actions.
Once the American people see through their duplicity, they will reward their actions with something less flattering than a pay raise. Perhaps, if fairness ever asserts itself, Congress could even reduce its pay by the same percentage it exceeds its budgets. And, perhaps, pigs will one day fly.
Tags: ALG, Americans for Limited Government, pigs fly, US Congress To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Fred Thompson to replace O'Reilly on talk radio
To the delight of FredHeads everywhere and to conservatives, Former US Senator (R-TN), actor and 2008 presidential candidate Fred Thompson will replace Bill O'Reilly on the radio airwaves. Thompson’s new talk radio show will replace The Radio Factor with Bill O'Reilly on March 2, 2009. O’Reilly’s show has had a six-year run. O'Reilly opted to focus more on The O'Reilly Show on Fox News TV.The Fred Thompson Show will feature Thompson sharing his views on politics, pop culture and water cooler stories about the issues of the day. The show will feature guest interviews and take listener calls. The show is scheduled to air live from 9 a.m. to 11 a.m. EST Monday on various Talk Radio stations across the nation. However, time slots may vary.
Tags: Bill O'Reilly, Fred Thompson, talk radio To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Air America Founder Publicly Opposes Un-Fairness Doctrine - - #protectfairness
Protect Fairness reports today that Jon Sinton, founding president of liberal talk radio enterprise Air America, pens a column in this morning’s Wall Street Journal in which he …. opposes the Fairness Doctrine. While he takes his shots at Rush and conservative talk radio hosts, he agrees with our premise that restoration of the Fairness ("Un-Fairness") Doctrine is unnecessary and wrong:As the founding president of Air America Radio, I believe that for the last eight years Rush Limbaugh and his ilk have been cheerleaders for everything wrong with our economic, foreign and domestic policies. But when it comes to the Fairness Doctrine, I couldn’t agree with them more. The Fairness Doctrine is an anachronistic policy that, with the abundance of choices on radio today, is entirely unnecessary.ACTION ALERT: Protect Fairness urges every right mined person to:
- Reinforce Mr. Sinton’s column by emailing a letter to the Wall Street Journal editor Letter guidelines: Make sure your letters are fewer than 200 words, and that you include your home address, e-mail address, and home and business telephone numbers.
- Sign the Protect Fairness Petition.
Tags: Censorship Doctrine, fairness doctrine, free speech, Protect Fairness Doctrine, unfairness, UnFairness Doctrine To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
What Caesar Did
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council: We are in transition in Washington these days. The sitting President isn't sitting much. George W. Bush is determined to "finish sprinting." We wish him well and we thank him and his family for what he has accomplished and what he has been willing to endure to keep our nation safe and free. These days most people are focused, understandably, on the words and deeds of the incoming President. As the new administration of Barack Obama takes shape, we will certainly have much to say.Political power has always attracted attention. The people's eyes naturally go to the wielder of the sword and the scepter. It was so in Biblical times. The Gospel of Luke tells us that "a decree went out from Caesar Augustus that all the world should be taxed." The Roman Empire was vast in those days. It stretched from Britain in the north, to Spain and Portugal in the west, deep into Africa and Egypt in the south, and as far east as modern-day Syria. Caesar Augustus ruled all of this territory and the teeming millions who inhabited it. Rome needed increased revenues, and Caesar knew how to get it. He first ordered that a census be conducted. He wanted a head count in order to apportion the amounts of money each provincial governor-like Cyrenius, governor of Syria-would be required to raise.
We can envision Caesar's imperial decree being inscribed by hand on vellum, a material made from the scraped-clean hide of an unborn calf. From the Emperor's residence in the House of Hortensius on Rome's Palatine Hill, runners would have carried the document to waiting horsemen, the imperial couriers. From Rome, these horsemen would likely have proceeded in relay, changing horse and rider as each messenger reached the border of one of Roman Italy's 11 administrative regions. Passing through Latium and Campania to Samnium, to Apulia along the Appian Way, the riders would make for Brundisium, a port city on the east coast of Italy.
There, Caesar's decree probably would have been received aboard a Roman warship. It might have been a quinquereme, propelled by galley slaves who rowed in banks of five. On board this red cedar-built craft, Caesar's order would cross the Mediterranean Sea to the Roman province of Palestine. Palestine was a distant outpost of the Empire, far from the most important of Rome's imperial holdings. All this ordering and obeying, this saluting and receiving of salutes, this "hail caesaring" was necessary to bring millions of people together in their ancestral villages. And so Joseph, who was of the House and Lineage of David, also complied with Caesar's decree.
Thus were Joseph and Mary brought into Bethlehem. Caesar thought he knew what he was doing. He had never heard of Bethlehem. He had never heard of the Hebrew Prophet Micah. Micah had written: For out of you Bethlehem-Ephrata...shall come one who is to be ruler in Israel; whose origin is of old...his greatness shall reach the ends of the earth; he shall be peace. (Micah: 5:2, 3, 5) God knew what He was doing in Palestine. Today, we know that the birth of Jesus in that little town of Bethlehem was, is, and ever shall be more important than all the Caesars, all the kings, all the presidents who ever ruled. In Bethlehem's dark streets there appeared an everlasting light. It shines for us still.
Tags: Ceasar, Christmas, Family Research Council, FRC, Politics, taxes, Tony Perkins To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Monday, December 22, 2008
How Many Kings? by Downhere
Let's not forget the awesome meaning of Christmas!
Tags: Christmas, Jesus Christ, kings To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Tags: Christmas, Jesus Christ, kings To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Greatest Depression?
by Robert Romano, Editor of ALG News Bureau: . . . When President Bush says he has abandoned free market principles, he means it. He believes with apparent sincerity that, by doing so, he is saving the free market system: but the truth is, that he—through de facto nationalization of the mortgage, insurance, financial, and now the auto industries—has set back the cause of free markets and limited government by at least thirty years. Speaking last week to the American Enterprise Institute, he outlined, with some candor, his rationale. He says the nation is averting a depression—perhaps the greatest depression ever—by using the public treasury to prop up financial institutions that he says were on the brink of failure. His essential case is that a failure to act would have resulted in the collapse of the global economic system.In a nutshell, this system had become far too overleveraged. Former Fed Chairman Alan Greenspan admits to as much last week in his commentary, writing that banks will require greater capital cushions moving forward in order to lend freely. It is this basic, critical failure of a system designed to create easy credit that precipitated the current crisis. And that, say the central planners, is what necessitates perpetuating that failure. So addicted to credit is the economy that even when too much credit causes a catastrophic failure, the only solution is yet more credit. Yet more debt. That’s what President Bush means by abandoning free market principles to save the free market system. It’s a lot like abandoning common sense to save one’s sanity.
Both the President and Mr. Greenspan believe that this direct, command-and-control approach to the economy must only be temporary. As if that is any relief. Mr. Bush says he does not want to leave the incoming President, Barack Obama, with a crisis. And yet he has.And to make matters worse, this dramatic, unprecedented expansion of government under an Obama administration will be anything but temporary. The incentive for there to be private investment to capitalize mortgage, insurance, and financial markets has been removed. Instead, government has created a monopoly over these industries, a trend not easily reversed, and certainly not by a political party that supports nationalization on its face.
The bailout, in a single year, has topped $8.7 trillion, reports Politico. Unlike private investors, government can just print more money, and the private sector simply cannot compete with that. Nor can it afford to finance it via the tax burden, because government is dramatically expanding the nation’s financial obligations far beyond anything the private sector can produce on its own. Government, in the process, paralyzes the economy from being able to meet this artificial demand for services. In short, the nation is being bankrupted. And the American taxpayer is being shackled to a mountain of debt. That is not a temporary fixture. That is slavery. The die is cast, and things may never be the same. [Full Article]
Tags: Americans for Limited Government, bailout, economy, lender bailout, President George Bush, socialism, the economy To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Sunday, December 21, 2008
Sunday Political Funnies - Dec. 21, 2008
by href="http://townhall.com/cartoons/cartoonist/GaryVarvel"rel="nofollow" target="new">Gary Varvel
by Glenn McCoy
by Glenn McCoy
by Glenn Foden
by Chuck AsayTags: cartoons, funnies, Chuck Asay, Glenn Foden, Glenn McCoy, Gary Varvel,political cartoon To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Pay Raises for Lawmakers Anger Watchdog Groups
by Stephen Clark, Fox News: As Americans across the country grapple with one of the worst financial crises since the Great Depression, members of Congress quietly are getting a pay raise. Each lawmaker's annual salary is due for a $4,700 cost-of-living increase starting in January, which will amount to a cost to taxpayers of $2.5 million in 2009, infuriating watchdog groups."Members of Congress don't deserve one additional dime of taxpayer money in 2009," said Tom Schatz, president of the Council for Citizens Against Government Waste. "While thousands of Americans are facing layoffs and downsizing, Congress should be mortified to accept a raise," he said in a written statement.
Members of Congress make an average of $169,300 a year, with Congressional leaders making slightly more. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, D-Cailf., makes $217,400, while the majority and minority leaders in the House and Senate each make $188,100. The raise will increase the average salary to about $174,000, up 2.8%. Pelosi's and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid's offices did not respond to FOXNews.com's requests for comment. Pay raises for public officials, whether at the federal, state or local level, usually spark outrage among taxpayer advocates. But the deepening financial crisis has led even a few lawmakers to object.
Earlier this year, Rep. Harry Mitchell, a first-term Democrat from Arizona, introduced legislation that would have stopped the automatic pay adjustments from kicking in for members next year. But the bill, which drew 34 cosponsors, died in committee. Two other members of Congress, Rep. Dan Burton, R-Ind, and Rep. Gresham Barrett, R-SC, also tried to block the wages but didn't get very far. Burton plans to return his pay increase to the Treasury Department. "As we face the most challenging economic crisis in our history, and with many Americans and Hoosiers enduring personal financial hardships, I am opposed to any pay increase for members of Congress in 2009," he said in a written statement. He said he'll try again next year.
Lawmakers have received automatic raises since 1989. As part of an ethics bill, Congress gave up its ability to accept pay for speeches and made annual cost-of-living pay increases automatic unless lawmakers voted otherwise. Lawmakers have rejected pay raises six times since then, most recently last year, when Democrats, newly elected to the majority, had vowed to block an increase in their paychecks until Congress raised the minimum wage.
For the past eight years, Rep. Jim Matheson, D-Utah, has been trying to end the automatic salary hike for House members, arguing that spending priorities in a time of war and economic crisis do not include pay raises for lawmakers. Matheson wants to put the automatic pay raises to a vote. "At a time when people are losing their jobs, their homes and their retirement, I think the least we could do is openly debate whether we should take the pay increase this year or do some belt-tightening," he said in a written statement. As he has done for the past eight years, Matheson plans to donate his pay raise to charity, his spokeswoman said.
The Senior Citizens League asserted the pay raise would rank each lawmaker in the top six percent of American households. "As lawmakers make a big show of forcing auto executives to accept just $1 a year in salary, they are quietly raiding the vault for their own personal gain," the group's chairman, Daniel O'Connell, said in a written statement. "This money would be much better spent helping the millions of seniors who are living below the poverty line and struggling to keep their heat on this winter." The group estimates that a senior receiving average benefits will get a $63 monthly increase to just $1,153 per month next year, increasing their annual total to $13,836. The pay raises come as the economic recession deepens. The economy lost 533,000 jobs in November, bringing the unemployment rate to 6.7%.
Tags: Congressional pay, pay increases To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
The Blagojevich of the Iceberg
Bill Smith, ARRA Editor: The following guest article by Paul Jacobs, a friend, a supporter of limited responsible government, and a fellow member of Sam Adams Alliance is available on Townhall.by Paul Jacobs: We've had our fun sniping about how corrupt the state of Illinois can be, how Gov. Rod Blagojevich is just the latest from a state noted for its smoke-filled rooms, payola, and double-dealing. But we risk overlooking the real issue: It's not that Illinois is especially corrupt. It's that power tends to corrupt and every governor faces temptation. Many succumb.
It may be that, in Illinois, the state's reputation encourages a certain bravado. Blagojevich used the f-word to accentuate his animate insistence on getting a return from doing his constitutional duty. Governors elsewhere, perhaps just as corrupt, practice a little more suavity, and thus don't hit the newspapers. We don't see headlines like this:
Understated Master Rhetorician Schwarzenegger Bribes California's DemocratsJournalists report news, and news amounts to a politician getting caught. A politician raising money in the ways politicians usually raise money is definitely not news, even if politics as usual has all the ethical uprightness of the Tower of Pisa. The truth is, it's hard to raise money in politics . . . if you are out of power. I know. I have been involved in fundraising for ballot measures or lobbying efforts around the country. It's not easy. All I can offer is a chance to change public policy.
New York Governor Raises Eyebrow During Crucial Negotiations With Donors
Our Governor Remains Pro at Avoiding Quid Pro Quo
Sitting politicians, on the other hand, have huge advantages. Their duties include passing legislation and handing out lucrative government contracts that pack quite a wallop to the wallet. Incumbent politicians are positioned perfectly to say, "You have to pay to play." Government has powers for which some folks will pay a lot. A politician could make a lot of money for providing such private services attached to public goods. It's understandable. Renting a politician's services can go a long way to increasing one's own wealth. And, moreover, the politician's wealth.
Most ways of paying are legal, though often ethically questionable. Some ways -- more blatant and obvious -- can be illegal while remaining hard to catch. Politicians know which words to use in avoiding a literal quid pro quo statement. Blagojevich suffers, now, from his bluntness, his gruff, vulgar corruption. But every politician is tempted with similar activity. Blagojevich serves as the tip of a much larger iceberg. Most just play it more subtly. So, Americans outside Illinois have no reason to gloat. The fact that their governors haven't been arrested does not mean their governors are not also dirty. Just, perhaps, more clever.
Of course, some politicians are honest. Most people don't get into politics for the money. They get into it to "do good." Inevitably, politics is run on money, and money often becomes the only gauge some people can find for "goodness." And, my goodness, does this standard have awful repercussions. The longer a person stays in strategic loci of power -- that is, in office, or in bureaucracy -- the more that person will see funneling money through government as the solution to every problem. If all you have is a hammer, everything soon looks like a nail.
Some folks are more resistant to this education in nail-pounding than others. This is a matter of personal psychology, I suppose, as well as personal morality. It helps if you make a public stand to resist the process. Self-term-limiters like Dr. Tom Coburn come to mind (as does the fact that public support for congressional term limits is at an all-time high). It also may help to know something of economics, for instance -- that is, the economics that recognizes limits to knowledge. To understand the complexity of that fabled beast, "the economy," and then to realize that no prediction can be certain helps inoculate oneself from schemes to control it all with varying amounts of power fueled by increasing amounts of money.
Governor Blagojevich surely deserves the hammering he's received in recent days. But it is important to hammer home a much broader point. Power corrupts. Politicians (being human, only more so) are susceptible to this corruption. Good government requires that citizens have practical ways to nail down the power of politicians. I bet there are politicians who worry that Bagojevich's latest bit of corruption might cause citizens to look more closely at all the rest.
Tags: corruption, iceberg, Paul Jacobs, politicians, Rod Blagojevich, corruption, Illinois To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Saturday, December 20, 2008
Realignment of America
by Kerby Anderson, Point of View: If you haven't noticed people move around quite a bit. And I am not just talking about your neighbors who drove off the other day in a U-Haul truck. I am talking about the realignment of America. I think we have all heard that the U.S. population is lowing from the Snow Belt to the Sun Belt. But Michael Barone explains that the trends are a bit more complex than that. Let's start with what he calls the "Coastal megaloplises" (New York, Los Angeles, Miami, etc.). Here you find that Americans are moving out and immigrants are moving in with a low net population growth.Contrast this with what he called "the Interior Boomtowns." Their population has grown 18 percent in six years. And this means that the nation's center of gravity is shifting. Dallas is now larger than San Francisco, Houston is larger than Boston, Charlotte is now larger than Milwaukee. Another section would be the old Rust Belt. The six metro areas (Detroit, Pittsburgh, Cleveland, Milwaukee, Buffalo, Rochester) have lost population since 2000. And you also have "the Static Cities." These 18 metropolitan areas have little immigrant inflow and little domestic inflow or outflow.
The political impact of this realignment is significant. Many of the metro areas voted in significant proportions for John Kerry in 2004 while the Interior Boomtowns voted for George W. Bush. But there is more at stake than just the presidential election. In less than two years we will have another census, and that will determine congressional districts. House seats and electoral votes will shift from New York, New Jersey, and Illinois to Texas, Florida, Georgia, Arizona, and Nevada. Social scientists say: "Demography is destiny." That is a simple way of saying that demographic changes alter our future. But you don't have to be a social scientist to see the impact. We all know that people move around, and that changes the political landscape. I'm Kerby Anderson, and that's my point of view.
Tags: demography, Human Society of United States, Kerby Anderson, Point of View, Politics, population shift To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Federal Government Theft Exceeds Bernie Madoff's!
See also: What Did We Learn From Madoff?Wall Street legend arrested on fraud charges
Tags: fraud, government failures, Ponzi scheme, social security To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Washington's Elastic Waste
Tony Perkins, Family Research Council: Members of Congress will return to Washington after Christmas with a lavish $4,700 stocking stuffer in their paychecks. It's the automatic salary increase that kicks off at the start of 2009. Surely those of us who are paying for it would agree-the raises are hardly performance-based! When Congress adjourned this month, it did so with a drab 20% approval rating. After helping spend America into a recession that's cost millions of Americans their jobs, Congress wants more compensation for their own! Adding to the pain, Democratic leaders plan to convene in January with a "stimulus" plan that could strip another trillion dollars in debt from already struggling families over the next two years. The proposal is lined with new spending projects for roads, infrastructure, "green" building projects, school beautification, and, potentially, government-controlled health care. For a snapshot of just how "essential" the line-items are, the National Taxpayers Union combed through the wish lists and found this gem. In Alexandria, Virginia, the mayor (one of many vying for "emergency funds") requested $2.4 million to make the trolley motors hybrid and replace the contractors who drive them with unionized city employees. Of course, Congress greased the wheels for this sort of waste with its $152 billion package in February and $700 billion bailout seven months later. Contact your leaders and tell them to stop the spending madness. If Congress doesn't know where to start, I do. Refuse the $2,514,500 in Capitol Hill pay raises. See also: FoxNews: Obama's Economic Advisers Considering $1 Trillion Stimulus PlanTags: Congressional pay, economic stimulus, Family Research Council, FRC, government waste, Tony Perkins, US Congress, Waste To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Friday, December 19, 2008
Bush Gives GM and Chrysler a Chance to Suvive
President George W. Bush is leaving office with the nation facing serious economic conditions He did not want to add to that the collapse of the domestic automotive industry which could lead to the loss of over two million more jobs. As a result, he has authorized a "bridge loan" that allows GM and Chrysler to survive until March 31st. This gives the new Obama Administration about ten weeks to work up a longer lasting solution.
According to Bloomberg: Bush announce that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will get $13.4 billion in emergency government loans in exchange for substantially restructuring their businesses. Another $4 billion will be available to GM in February provided Congress releases the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program fund originally set up to bail out financial institutions. The automakers have until March 31 to meet the conditions of the loans, including demonstrating they have a plan to become profitable, or be forced to repay.
Winning the assistance is a reprieve for GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, and No. 3 Chrysler after they said they would run out of operating funds as soon as this month.
The loan term is three years. GM would get $4 billion by Dec. 29 and $5.4 billion by Jan. 16. Chrysler would get $4 billion by Dec. 29. GM would get another $4 billion by Feb. 17, provided Congress releases the TARP funds. Under the terms of the plan, the government’s debt would have priority over any other creditors. The automakers also must provide warrants for non-voting stock, accept limits on executive pay, and give the government access to financial records.
No dividends may be issued until the loans are repaid. In addition, the automakers must cut their debt by two-thirds in an equity exchange. For workers, GM and Chrysler would be required to make half of the payments to a union retirement fund in equity and eliminate a program that pays union workers when they don’t have work. Unions and management would have to negotiate a plan to have compensation and work rules in place by Dec. 31, 2009, that will make the U.S. companies competitive with foreign automakers. The requirements could be modified by negotiations with the union and debt holders.
GM and Chrysler will pay at least 5 percent on the loans, and would pay 3 percentage points over the London interbank offered rate should Libor exceed 2 percent. The average cost of loans to high-risk, high-yield companies in dollars is a premium of 10.5 percentage points more than Libor, according to Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary and Data unit.
Tags: auto industry, bailout, Bloomberg, Chrysler, GM To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
According to Bloomberg: Bush announce that General Motors Corp. and Chrysler LLC will get $13.4 billion in emergency government loans in exchange for substantially restructuring their businesses. Another $4 billion will be available to GM in February provided Congress releases the second half of the $700 billion Troubled Asset Relief Program fund originally set up to bail out financial institutions. The automakers have until March 31 to meet the conditions of the loans, including demonstrating they have a plan to become profitable, or be forced to repay.
Winning the assistance is a reprieve for GM, the biggest U.S. automaker, and No. 3 Chrysler after they said they would run out of operating funds as soon as this month.
The loan term is three years. GM would get $4 billion by Dec. 29 and $5.4 billion by Jan. 16. Chrysler would get $4 billion by Dec. 29. GM would get another $4 billion by Feb. 17, provided Congress releases the TARP funds. Under the terms of the plan, the government’s debt would have priority over any other creditors. The automakers also must provide warrants for non-voting stock, accept limits on executive pay, and give the government access to financial records.
No dividends may be issued until the loans are repaid. In addition, the automakers must cut their debt by two-thirds in an equity exchange. For workers, GM and Chrysler would be required to make half of the payments to a union retirement fund in equity and eliminate a program that pays union workers when they don’t have work. Unions and management would have to negotiate a plan to have compensation and work rules in place by Dec. 31, 2009, that will make the U.S. companies competitive with foreign automakers. The requirements could be modified by negotiations with the union and debt holders.
GM and Chrysler will pay at least 5 percent on the loans, and would pay 3 percentage points over the London interbank offered rate should Libor exceed 2 percent. The average cost of loans to high-risk, high-yield companies in dollars is a premium of 10.5 percentage points more than Libor, according to Standard & Poor’s Leveraged Commentary and Data unit.
Tags: auto industry, bailout, Bloomberg, Chrysler, GM To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
American Express Not So Friendly With American Bailout Money
The Religious Freedom Coalition reported that in November, 2008, just days after receiving billions of our tax dollars for a bail-out, American Express canceled credit lines of all their small business customers, making it impossible to buy inventory for Christmas and causing layoffs. At the same time American Express canceled the credit lines of non-profit organizations, including nonprofits like the Religious Freedom Coalition.
Today, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on American Express Co by one notch due to increasing financial pressure on consumer lenders, the rating company said. S&P cut its ratings for American Express by one step to "A," or five steps above junk, from "A-plus." The outlook is negative, suggesting more cuts may come.
American Express states its Corporate Responsibiliy as follows:
Tags: American Express, bailout, nonprofits, small business, taxes To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!
Today, Standard & Poor's cut its rating on American Express Co by one notch due to increasing financial pressure on consumer lenders, the rating company said. S&P cut its ratings for American Express by one step to "A," or five steps above junk, from "A-plus." The outlook is negative, suggesting more cuts may come.
American Express states its Corporate Responsibiliy as follows:
At American Express we believe that serving our communities is not only integral to running a business successfully, it is part of our individual responsibilities as citizens of the world. The mission of our program is to bring to life the American Express value of good corporate citizenship by supporting diverse communities in ways that enhance the company's reputation with employees, customers, business partners and other stakeholders. We do this by supporting visionary not-for-profit organizations that are:It appears that American Express was willing to apply and take our tax dollars to help bailout their business while at the same time not doing what was expected but instead shafted their clients: American small businesses and non-profit organizations. Are there any other Americans who would like their bailout (tax money) back from American Express?
Preserving and enriching our diverse cultural heritage
Developing new leaders for tomorrow
Encouraging community service where our employees and customers live and work
Tags: American Express, bailout, nonprofits, small business, taxes To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!