Arlen Specter

The Chicago Tribune reports

“Republican Sen. Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania is switching parties and plans to seek reelection next year as a Democrat, in the meantime likely handing the Democrats a filibuster-proof majority in the Senate.
Specter’s switch could hand the Democrats a 60-seat advantage in theSenate, provided that Al Franken of Minnesota prevails in hiscourt-fight for a long-contested Senate election there. However,Specter said today that he will not become an “automatic” 60th vote toclose debates in the Senate”

Arlen Specter will be another Ben Nelson. Ben Nelson was elected to the U.S. Senate in 2000, and is now the leading conservative Democrat in the Senate.

Ben Nelson sets himself to be a powerbroker in the party. To get any major legislation passed, you need this guy and Specter’s approval but you can bypass the obstructionist GOP now.

I think him and Nelson can be a good check for the party without resorting going to the GOP who will want to tear any progressive measures out of the legislation. There will be little need to get any Republican support on future legislation.

Right-Wing Hysteria

Yesterday, I was watching Countdown and there was a discussion that the right-wing is going nuts.  The guys at the Corner at the National Review are calm and rational right now.  The National Review is a intellectual conservative journal that I read sometimes.

  However, this blog is over the top and even makes Glen Beck and Bill O’Reilly look rational.   Here is the excerpt

“Another traitorous attack on behalf of the seditious administration. The military is the enemy. He needs to demonize America’s much loved military. Destroy their reputation. It’s what the leftists do. It’s how they destroy the enemy. DISINFORMATION (Soviets were brilliant at this, as are the current EU statist thugs and their tools).

The Mohammedan president is going to gin up his constituency across the world while deploying our troops in a nonsensical military strategy in Afghanistan. Do you see what he is doing? He is going to decimate the military. The left did this in the 60s. They demonized the war and our troops along with it. This time, they demonized this war, but it did not work in besmirching our beloved soldiers. So now they have to make them look bad.
BRING HOME THE TROOPS! 

Save our boys from a jihad sympathizing president. I said this in a previous thread — Obama wants trials. Obama wants to divert attention from his coup on the Constitution. Dear leader wants to control the images, the news you hear. He needs to distract the American people while he destroys America. They do not want tea parties, they do not want cognizance. They do not want you to think about what they are doing. Show trials. It is very much like terrorists who start a fire to distract first responders, so they can set off a bomb somewhere else.

Obama and his traitors will “start a fire” and hypnotize the American people with torture! cruelty! and put Bushchimphitler policy on trial with a special prosecutor, of course, while they overthrow the constitution, capitalism, freedom of speech, and enact gun control. That is what is happen”

This guy needs to sit down with a shrink and explain his delusional paranoia to a master psychologist.   They have a delusional belief that Obama is going to take their guns and do all kinds of other horrible things.   I just do not understand why these people have to resort to delusional beliefs just becaues a Dem won and he is a black man.

Do you have any explainations?  Right now, I am loss for words over this paranoia.

GAO Reports — Use of Stimulus Funds And Use of Taxpayer’s Dollars For Auto Bailout

As a citzen of this country, I believe it is our responsiblity to monitor and track how the government spends our tax dollars.  In the era of the internet, our ability to engage in independent oversight of government expenditures has never been better.  One of the agencies that does this for Congress is the GAO and GAO provides a copy of the reports to the public on the Internet.

There is huge fights about the stimlus and use of the auto bailout money in Congress, blogsphere, and especially cable news (Olbermann And Maddow Vs O’Reilly, Hannity, And Beck).   The talking heads are full of spin and even if you typically side with one group (I prefer MSNBC because I endorse liberal causes), one has to skeptical that the talking heads are not always telling you truth.

I was looking for a report that deals with my agency.   Instead, I found two reports that deal with the use of stimulus funds and auto bailout.  Since they are consider to be very sensitive political issues, I decided to share the reports with you.    I included link to the full report and another link that provides one to two page summaries of the reports.

Here are the reports.
GAO-09-580 – As Initial Implementation Unfolds in States and Localities, Continued Attention to Accountability Issues Is Essential”

( Highlights . Full Report)
GAO-09-553 – “Summary  of Government Efforts and Automakers’ Restructuring to Date”

( Highlights,  Full Report)

Can George Bush Do Anything Right? Nope, He Screwed Up the Ted Stevens. What Else is New

I guess he was the biggest moron in history. He started the wars in Iraq, his policies contributed to the economic collapse, there is significant evidence that his Vice President is guilty of Conspiracy to Committ torture, there was warantless wire tapping, and hold bunch of other bad stuff.

And they cannot even get the Ted Steven’s case right. Mr. Steven’s is guilty as heck but the Justice Department was corrupt. Even there is a significant evidence to demonstrate he is guilty, Mr. Steven’s did not get a fair trial. According to some radio reports, one of the prosecutors was having sex with the star witness. I consider that to be a serious breach of ethics and the case should be thrown out.

Thanks to Eric Holder for doing the right thing and dropping this case. Eric Holder will restore integrity to this office of Attonery General and will not be like Alberto Gonzales. And, at least we will not being any  special comments from Olberman to the new AG” Alberto Gonzales, on the other hand, deserved many special comments for what he did to tarnish this office.

And the Ted Steven’s case will be remember in a long list of actions that lower the integrity and standing of the Justice Department with the American public during the Bush years.

The Deficit is High As the Stars

There are 10^11 stars in the galaxy. That used to be a huge number. But it’s only a hundred billion. It’s less than the national deficit! We used to call them astronomical numbers. Now we should call them economical numbers.

Can imagine a trillion dollar debt? The size is this huge. How we are every going repay that? Don’t ask me that question? The solution is insane tax hikes and spending cuts. No Laffer Curve is going to solve this one. The Republicans just cannot give up the Laffler Curve but that is life

Clark Kelso

It looks like the governor is going to county jail. Is Kelso smoking crack thinking that he is going to send the Governator to the county jail. (http://tinyurl.com/cny4dy)

AIG

Geitner’s Plan

I consider this thing to be DOA.  Not going to work at all.   For once, I going to agree with the National Review on this and when I agree with the National Review is once in a blue moon.  Obama should came out with a more detailed plan but instead relied of being vague on how the problem should be solved.

Congressional Record

This blog discusses the use of Congressional Record and how it can be used to make lawmakers accountable for stimulus bill

Sarah Palin

In Ann Coulter’s piece on Human Events, she states that Sarah Palin is the Conservative of the year. Ann Coulter writes that when McCain choosed Palin, McCain became a real “maverick”. To Coulter, a “Maverick” is somebody does not agree with the Editorial board of New York Times. A maverick for standing out among the crowd and drive liberals like me crazy.

To me, she deserves the award. She has a certain charm and wit about her. But she was one that brought out of the whackos. In real life, she just a normal conservative but her personality brought the real nutjobs out. On the Left Coast, we call them freaks.

So hats off to Sarah Palin because you deserve it