From the Politico:

U.S. Vice President Joe Biden poses for a photo with a U.S. soldier at Camp Victory on the outskirts of Baghdad, Iraq, Sunday, July 4, 2010.

Joe Biden sees Iraq success for President Obama

By: Mike Allen
July 5, 2010

BAGHDAD – Vice President Joe Biden said after a three-day trip to Baghdad that the American people will see President Barack Obama’s Iraq policy as a success when the “combat mission” ends on schedule on Aug. 31. Biden said the administration “will be able to point to it and say, ‘We told you what we’re going to do, and we did it.’”

The ‘surge’ which Messrs Obama and Biden both vehemently opposed led to the success of the combat mission. And the withdraw timetable that is now being followed was agreed to long before Mr. Obama was even elected.

But when has Mr. Biden ever let reality get in the way of one of his imbecilic claims?

“I think America wins,” Biden told POLITICO in an end-of-trip interview at the ambassador’s residence in the sprawling U.S. embassy complex. “I sound corny, but I think America gets credit here in the region. And I think everybody gets credit, from George Bush to [President Obama].

How gracious of him. Of course, neither he nor his boss deserve one iota of credit for any of this. They were on side of our country’s enemies on the war in Iraq, just as they usually are on every issue.

“I think Americans will recognize that there aren’t body counts . . .that they got 95,000 people home. That will be noticeable that they’re home." …

Biden said improved conditions in Iraq will bolster Democrats with voters in November.

“They are going to take a look and see that the president kept his promise getting troops home, which will give them more confidence in the foreign policy he set,” Biden said.

Among his other charms, Mr. Biden is simply a shameless pathological liar. But, then again, isn’t everyone in the Democrat Party a shameless pathological liar?

They must be, if they hope to run on this outrageous claim in November.

Some surprising admissions from the Associated Press, albeit discreetly buried on a summer holiday weekend:

People stand on a border crossing and next to a banner reading "U.S. border patrol, we worry about the violence in Mexico, we (k)now you, murderers" in Ciudad Juarez June 8, 2010.

Mexico’s drug war heats up near Arizona border

By Elliot Spagat, Associated Press Writer Mon Jul 5, 2010

ALTAR, Mexico – Very few residents dare to drive on one of the roads out of this watering-hole for migrants, fearing they will be stopped at gunpoint. They worry they will be told to turn around after their gas tanks are drained or, worse, be kidnapped or killed.

A shootout that left 21 people dead and six wounded on the road last week is the most gruesome sign that a relatively tranquil pocket of northern Mexico is quickly turning into a hotbed of drug-fueled violence on Arizona’s doorstep. The violence in recent months is grist for supporters of the state’s tough new law against illegal immigration, who are eager to portray the border as a lawless battlefield of smugglers both of drugs and humans.

Those redneck racist xenophobes. How crazy they are to get upset over a few murders.

Nogales, the main city in the region, which shares a border with the Arizona city of the same name, has had 131 murders so far this year, nearly surpassing 135 for all of 2009, according to a tally by the newspaper Diario de Sonora. That includes two heads found Thursday stuffed side by side between the bars of a cemetery fence.

The carnage still pales compared to other Mexican border cities, most notably Ciudad Juarez, which lies across from El Paso, Texas, which had 2,600 murders last year. But the increase shows that some small cattle-grazing towns near Nogales are now in the grip of drug traffickers who terrorize residents.

The violence is concentrated in a few villages in the mountainous desert area of Rio Altar, which, until recently, drew tourists for its handsome churches, its river, a tilapia-filled lake and cooler temperatures. The roads wind through mountains of mesquite trees and saguaro cactus…

The territory is disputed between Joaquin "El Chapo" Guzman, who heads the Sinaloa cartel, and the Beltran Leyva cartel, whose leader, Arturo Beltran Leyva, was killed in a shootout last December with Mexican marines in Cuernavaca, south of Mexico City.

Locals trace the wave of violence to the arrest in February of Jose Vazquez Villagrana, nicknamed "El Jaibil," or "The Wild Boar." Vazquez, reported to be an ally of Guzman, was captured by federal police in the nearby town of Santa Ana…

Aren’t these colorful names so amusing? It’s just like the days of the ‘Wild West’ or Chicago of the ‘Roaring Twenties.’

Tubutama, a village of about 1,500 people with no hotel, restaurant or gas station, canceled its annual town fair last month for the first time in memory. The move came after the town’s comptroller and director of public works were murdered.

Journalists who cover the small villages stopped visiting several months ago, saying it is too dangerous.

"If no one puts a stop to this, these will become ghost towns," said Jose Martin Mayoral, editor of Diario del Desierto, the newspaper in Caborca…

Altar, a town of about 10,000 people with a yellow-domed Roman Catholic church in its central square, has been spared the violence but is only about 15 miles (24 kilometers) from Tubutama. The town’s economy was booming a few years ago with taxi drivers, restaurants and lodging houses that catered to migrants preparing to cross the U.S. border illegally in the Arizona desert.

Now, a scarcity of jobs because of the U.S. economic downturn is keeping illegal immigrants away, causing Altar to fall on hard times as well.

Gosh, that is heartbreaking.

Ana Maria Velasquez, who volunteers at the church, said there used to be 50 candles on an altar to the Virgin of Guadalupe, each left by a migrant as a good-luck ritual before crossing the border. On Sunday, there was only one.

"The migrants sustained this town," said Velasquez, 29. "Now that the flow is down, we’re very bad off economically."

More than 23,000 people have been killed in Mexico’s drug violence since President Felipe Calderon launched an all-out offensive on cartels in 2006.

And since Mr. Calderon legalized the possession of all ‘recreational drugs.’

Despite its proximity to Arizona, the increase in drug-fueled violence in this region has not spilled across the border — nor has it in El Paso or San Diego, across from Tijuana, Mexico…

So you see, there really is nothing to worry about, no matter what the racist rednecks say. We have the word of the Associated Press on this.

Still, it is always edifying to see the kind of stories our media masters try to sneak out on days when they think nobody will notice.

Which report should we believe? This, from Agence France-Presse:

Clinton vows support for Georgia, slams Russian ‘occupation’

By Christophe Schmidt (AFP)

July 5, 2010

TBILISI — US Secretary of State Hillary Clinton reassured Georgia on Monday with a pledge of steadfast support and called on Russia to end its "occupation" of two breakaway Georgian regions.

"The United States is steadfast in its commitment to Georgia’s sovereignty and territorial integrity," Clinton said at a joint press conference with President Mikheil Saakashvili during a visit to Tbilisi.

Clinton also urged Moscow to abide by a ceasefire agreement that stipulates its forces must return to positions held before the 2008 Georgia-Russia war over the rebel regions of South Ossetia and Abkhazia.

"We continue to call for Russia to abide by the August 2008 ceasefire commitment… including by ending the occupation and withdrawing Russian troops from South Ossetia and Abkhazia to their pre-conflict positions," she said.

Clinton had earlier said that the United States would continue to denounce Russia’s military presence in Georgian territory despite Washington’s "reset" in relations with Moscow, which had raised concerns in Tbilisi of an abandonment of US support.

"We continue to object to and criticise actions by Russia which we believe are wrong and on the top of the list is the invasion and occupation of Georgia," Clinton said in a speech to women leaders.

"The United States supports the Georgian people, we support Georgian democracy," she said.

Saakashvili said he was encouraged that the US was continuing to stand by Georgia despite the "reset" with Moscow…

Or this, from Reuters:

U.S. warns Georgia not to give Russia excuse to act

By Arshad Mohammed Mon Jul 5, 2010

TBILISI (Reuters) – U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton warned Georgia on Monday not to give Moscow any excuse to take aggressive action against the south Caucasus nation, still reeling from its August 2008 war with Russia.

Clinton repeated the U.S. rejection of what she called Russia’s "invasion and … ongoing occupation" of South Ossetia and said diplomatic efforts to resolve the dispute had to be intensified.

But she also suggested the solution might ultimately be to strengthen Georgian economic, judicial and political systems, thereby giving people in South Ossetia and Abkhazia, another separatist region, a reason to want to be part of Georgia.

"The more Georgia can deal with its own problems, the stronger the case becomes," Clinton told a meeting of Georgian women leaders in the capital Tbilisi. "That is the greatest answer. That is the rebuke that no one can dispute." …

So, according to the smartest woman in the world, it was Georgia’s fault that Russia invaded them. They weren’t be ‘democratic’ enough. And we all know what a stickler Mr. Putin is for democracy.

U.S. President Barack Obama’s "reset" of relations with Russia has raised questions among Georgians about whether Washington has subordinated their interests to better ties with Moscow…

Russia’s war with Georgia caused the worst rift with the West since the fall of the Soviet Union in 1991. It also led some U.S. officials to question Georgian President Mikheil Saakashvili’s judgment and the wisdom of his warm embrace by the administration of former U.S. President George W. Bush.

And by “some U.S. officials, Reuters means the Obama administration.

Before meeting Saakashvili, Clinton said: "I would strongly urge that Georgia not be baited or provoked into any action that would give any excuse to the Russians to take any further aggressive movements."…

In other words, do everything the way Mr. Putin says, and he might allow you to pretend to be an independent country. For now.

From a cheering Associated Press:

BP costs for oil spill response pass $3 billion

By Tom Breen, Associated Press Writer

July 5, 2010

NEW ORLEANS – BP’s costs for the disastrous Gulf of Mexico oil spill climbed nearly half a billion dollars in the past week, raising the oil giant’s tab to just over $3 billion for work on cleaning and capping the gusher and payouts to individuals, businesses and governments.

London-based BP PLC, the largest oil and gas producer in the Gulf, released its latest tally of response costs Monday. The total of $3.12 billion was up from $2.65 billion a week earlier. The figure does not include a $20 billion fund for Gulf damages BP created last month…

And here is more good news for our President and his party, also from a gladdened Associated Press:

Mideast buyers reported to be eyeing BP investment

By Adam Schreck, AP Business Writer Sun Jul 4, 2010

DUBAI, United Arab Emirates – BP may be looking to sovereign wealth funds in the oil-rich Middle East to fend off takeover bids amid mounting costs from the Gulf of Mexico oil leak disaster, according to reports published Sunday.

The National, an Emirati newspaper, cited unnamed "informed sources" in the region saying that Mideast financial institutions have submitted proposals to BP advisers and are waiting for a response. Among the options being considered are the acquisition of key assets or a direct cash injection to help strengthen the oil giant’s balance sheet, according to the English-language paper.

The paper quoted a person it called an informed source as saying that "BP knows there is potential support from the Middle East."

The National is owned by the government of Abu Dhabi, one of seven emirates that make up the United Arab Emirates federation. The sheikdom hosts the country’s capital and controls nearly all the OPEC member state’s oil reserves…

The article coincided with a report in London’s Sunday Times that BP is looking for a strategic investor to help fend off takeover attempts. It said the company’s advisers are looking to rival oil groups and sovereign wealth funds to take a stake of 5 percent to 10 percent in the company at a cost of up to $9.1 billion (6 billion pounds).

BP has lost more than 50 percent of its stock market value since the Deepwater Horizon oil rig exploded in April, causing the worst offshore oil spill in U.S. history.

Its share price plunge has put the oil giant at risk of an unwanted takeover approach from rivals like Exxon Mobil or Royal Dutch Shell.

Middle East investors have ridden to the rescue of Western companies in past times of financial need…

Yes, won’t it be wonderful if still more of the world’s oil supply ends up under the control of the Middle East?

What could possibly go wrong?

From the UK’s Daily Mail:

Fury as doctor who said Lockerbie bomber would die in three months admits: He could live for a decade

By Jack Doyle
5th July 2010

The cancer expert who predicted the Lockerbie bomber would die within three months of his release from prison has admitted he could live for another ten years or more.

Professor Karol Sikora, who had diagnosed Abdelbaset Al Megrahi with terminal cancer, faced calls to apologise to victims’ families last night…

The Scottish government claimed there was a ‘firm consensus’ among medical experts that he would die within 12 weeks.

But there was widespread speculation the move was in fact part of an Anglo-Libyan trade deal – and unrelated to his terminal prostate cancer – after it emerged UK Government ministers had pushed for his release.

Cancer specialist Professor Sikora, who assessed the 58-year-old, admitted in comments published yesterday that it was ‘embarrassing’ that Megrahi has lived much longer than expected.

He told the Sunday Times: ‘There was always a chance he could live for ten years, 20 years . . . But it’s very unusual.’

And he admitted: ‘It was clear that three months was what they were aiming for. Three months was the critical point.

‘On the balance of probabilities, I felt I could sort of justify (that).’

He denied he came any under pressure to deliver the diagnosis, but admitted: ‘It is embarrassing that he’s gone on for so long.’

‘There was a 50 per cent chance that he would die in three months, but there was also a 50 per cent chance that he would live longer.’ …

Funny, but we don’t recall hearing that at the time of this terrorist’s release.

He told the Daily Mail: ‘I really thought he would die much sooner than he has. All indications were that the disease was progressing rapidly.

It would have been very convenient if he had died within three months but he hasn’t and I will have to live with that.’

The suggestion that Megrahi, the only person convicted over the deaths of 270 people in the 1988 bombing of Pan Am flight 103, could live another decade, was rubbished in Tripoli.

Sources said he was now relying on alternative medicine to battle prostate cancer, and would be unlikely to be alive next month to mark the one-year anniversary of his release…

Well, we can all hope.

Still, isn’t it peculiar how there is seldom any mention of BP’s role in this scandal.

Alas, we only created this site (née Get Drunk And Vote 4 McCain) for the recent Presidential campaign.

And we all know how that turned out.

So we think it is probably time to close up shop here. At least for the foreseeable future.

But before doing so we want to thank each and every one of our gentle readers – and especially those who posted comments and who sent in news tips.

It was a lot of fun, except for the final results.

Please come over to our sister site, Sweetness & Light, for more of the same – only different.

Cheers!

We’ll always have Paris.

Another entry in the annals of Mr. Obama’s bi-partisanship, via the Politico:

Obama blasts ‘tired old theories’

By NIA-MALIKA HENDERSON | 2/7/09

In his weekly address, President Barack Obama hailed the Senate’s apparent Friday deal on the economic stimulus plan, saying that Republicans and Democrats "responded appropriately to the urgency this moment demands"—but continued to criticize Republicans for pushing what he called "tired old theories." …

Obama surrogates fanned out yesterday to spread the sharper message that president kicked off on Thursday with his campaign-style partisan speech before House Democrats hammering Republicans for pushing tax cuts in the stimulus bill…

"Let’s be clear: We can’t expect relief from the tired old theories that, in eight short years, doubled the national debt, threw our economy into a tailspin, and led us into this mess in the first place. We can’t rely on a losing formula that offers only tax cuts as the answer to all our problems while ignoring our fundamental economic challenges – the crushing cost of health care or the inadequate state of so many schools; our addiction to foreign oil or our crumbling roads, bridges, and levees," he said. "The American people know that our challenges are great. They don’t expect Democratic solutions or Republican solutions – they expect American solutions." ..

What is older or more tired than the theory that you can spend your way out of a recession?

The theory even predates its most famous proponent John Maynard Keynes. And Keynes was born in 1883 and began his financial career in England during WWI.

And of course variations on what would come to be known as Keynesian economics were all the rage during the Great Depression, and are credited by many with prolonging it for seven years.

In contrast, tax cuts have gotten us out of recessions every time they have been tried. With Mr. Reagan and both Bush Presidencies.

No, Mr. Obama’s idea of hope and change is a return to the early twentieth century. He is pining for bread lines and the WPA.

And the socialism agenda those artificially prolonged hardships begat.

A press release from House Republican Leader John Boehner:

Leader Boehner Questions White House Takeover of U.S. Census Bureau

Nonpartisan Census Should Remain Independent of Politics, Republican Leader Says

Washington, Feb 6 – House Republican Leader John Boehner (R-OH) today issued the following statement regarding reports that control of the U.S. Census Bureau will be stripped from the Department of Commerce and placed with the White House staff:

“I am disturbed by reports that control of the traditionally nonpartisan Census Bureau is being stripped from the Commerce Department and placed with the White House staff.  This action appears to be motivated by politics, rather than the interests of our country, and the burden will be on the new administration to prove otherwise during Senator Gregg’s confirmation hearings.  The United States Census should remain independent of politics; it should not be directed by political operatives working out of the White House.”

This is beyond preposterous.

Do we really want former ACORN thugs activists, like Messrs Obama and Emanuel, running the US Census?

Where is the outrage?

Where is any media coverage?

From the Politico:

Sen. Stabenow wants hearings on radio ‘accountability’; talks fairness doctrine

This morning, radio host Bill Press brought up the recent closing of liberal station Obama 1260 when speaking with Michigan Sen. Debbie Stabenow, and talked about whether there needs to be a balance to right-wing talk on the radio dial.

BILL PRESS: Yeah, I mean, look: They have a right to say that. They’ve got a right to express that. But, they should not be the only voices heard. So, is it time to bring back the Fairness Doctrine?

SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI): I think it’s absolutely time to pass a standard. Now, whether it’s called the Fairness Standard, whether it’s called something else — I absolutely think it’s time to be bringing accountability to the airwaves. I mean, our new president has talked rightly about accountability and transparency. You know, that we all have to step up and be responsible. And, I think in this case, there needs to be some accountability and standards put in place.

BILL PRESS: Can we count on you to push for some hearings in the United States Senate this year, to bring these owners in and hold them accountable?

SENATOR DEBBIE STABENOW (D-MI): I have already had some discussions with colleagues and, you know, I feel like that’s gonna happen. Yep.

Although Obama has been publicly opposed to reinstating the fairness doctrine, conservative radio has talked nonstop about the fear of it returning (or perhaps something like it with another name) while there’s a Democrat in the White House and a Democratic majority in Congress.

UPDATE: A commenter points out that Stabenow is married to Tom Athans, a liberal talk radio executive.

Mr. Athans is not just a “liberal talk radio executive.” If one goes to the Wikipedia entry linked in the article, one learns:

Tom Athans

He is a co-founder and former CEO of the liberal-progressive Democracy Radio, an organization that produced and supported liberal talk radio shows that formerly included the Ed Schultz Show. He is now the executive Vice-President of another liberal talk radio organization Air America…

On November 4, 2005, Athans stepped down as CEO of Democracy Radio, ending the organization.

After stepping down from Democracy Radio, Athans became the Executive Vice-President of Air America, a much larger but similar organization. Athans is in charge of developing new programming to expand Air Americas lineup. He will also head Air America’s Washington, D.C. corporate office…

On April 2, 2008, the Detroit Free Press reported that Athans had been implicated in a prostitution sting:

Thomas Athans, the husband of U.S. Sen. Debbie Stabenow and cofounder of a liberal talk radio network, told Troy police detectives that he paid a prostitute $150 for sex at a Troy hotel in late February, according to a police report obtained Wednesday by the Free Press under the Freedom of Information Act. Athans, 46, was not arrested or charged, but agreed to fully cooperate with police in their investigation of Internet-based prostitution at hotels in the city, according to the report. Athans was pulled over by police on I-75 minutes after leaving the Residence Inn on Livernois, just east of I-75 and south of Big Beaver, the evening of Feb. 26. He was driving a Cadillac DeVille registered jointly to him and Stabenow at their address in Lansing. He was ticketed for driving on a suspended license. When questioned during the stop, he acknowledged he had been at the hotel with a woman he met on the Internet. On further questioning, he acknowledged he had paid the woman $150 for oral sex.

All in all, Mr. Athans is the epitome of a liberal Democrat.

A failure in business, who now wants the rules changed.

And of course he is a moral reprobate.

(Thanks to John Galt for the heads up.)

From the Politico:

Cheney warns of new attacks

By Jim VandeHei, John F. Harris and Mike Allen

Wed Feb 4

Former Vice President Dick Cheney warned that there is a “high probability” that terrorists will attempt a catastrophic nuclear or biological attack in coming years, and said he fears the Obama administration’s policies will make it more likely the attempt will succeed.

In an interview Tuesday with Politico, Cheney unyieldingly defended the Bush administration’s support for the Guantanamo Bay prison and coercive interrogation of terrorism suspects.

And he asserted that President Obama will either backtrack on his stated intentions to end those policies or put the country at risk in ways more severe than most Americans — and, he charged, many members of Obama’s own team — understand.

“When we get people who are more concerned about reading the rights to an Al Qaeda terrorist than they are with protecting the United States against people who are absolutely committed to do anything they can to kill Americans, then I worry,” Cheney said.

Protecting the country’s security is “a tough, mean, dirty, nasty business,” he said. “These are evil people. And we’re not going to win this fight by turning the other cheek.”

Citing intelligence reports, Cheney said at least 61 of the inmates who were released from Guantanamo during the Bush administration — “that’s about 11 or 12 percent” — have “gone back into the business of being terrorists.”

The 200 or so inmates still there, he claimed, are “the hard core” whose “recidivism rate would be much higher.” (Lawyers for Guantanamo detainees have strongly disputed the recidivism figures, asserting that the Pentagon data have inconsistencies and omissions.) Cheney called Guantanamo a “first-class program,” and “a necessary facility” that is operated legally and with better food and treatment than the jails in inmates’ native countries.

But he said he worried that “instead of sitting down and carefully evaluating the policies,” Obama officials are unwisely following “campaign rhetoric” and preparing to release terrorism suspects or afford them legal protections granted to more conventional defendants in crime cases.

The choice, he alleged, reflects a naive mindset among the new team in Washington: “The United States needs to be not so much loved as it needs to be respected.

Sometimes, that requires us to take actions that generate controversy. I’m not at all sure that that’s what the Obama administration believes.” …

Of course it does not take a Nostradamus to realize that the terrorists will probably strike again — big time.

And as even Mr. Biden noted, probably sooner rather than later, with such a naive neophyte in the White House.

But to hear this from the unflappable Mr. Cheney is especially unnerving.

From the economic mavens of the New York Times:

Sen. Susan Collins, R-Maine, right, accompanied by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Mo., left, and Sen. James Webb, D-Va., testifies on Capitol Hill in Washington, Monday, Feb. 2, 2009, before the Wartime Contracting Commission hearing into Iraq inspector general Stuart Bowen’s critical account of the Bush administration’s blunders in post-war reconstruction efforts.

Centrists in Senate Push to Cut Billions From Stimulus

February 6, 2009
By DAVID M. HERSZENHORN

WASHINGTON — Anxious over the ballooning size of the proposed economic stimulus package, now at more than $900 billion, lawmakers in both parties are working on a last-minute plan to strip tens of billions of dollars from the bill.

The effort is being led by two centrist senators, Ben Nelson, Democrat of Nebraska, and Susan Collins, Republican of Maine, who say they would like to pare from $50 billion to $200 billion from the package. The final Senate vote on the stimulus package is expected late on Thursday,

Among the initiatives that could be cut are $50 million for the National Endowment for the Arts, $14 million for cyber security research by the Homeland Security Department, $1 billion for the National Science Foundation, $400 million for research and prevention of sexually transmitted diseases, $850 million for Amtrak and $400 million for climate change research. But so far, none of the suggestions come close to being enough to shrink the package on the scale proposed…

Ms. Collins, one of just a few moderates left in the diminished Republican minority, and Mr. Nelson, one of the most conservative members of the strengthened Democratic majority, have teamed up before to bridge partisan gaps, including an effort in July 2007 to change the mission of American troops in Iraq while not setting the hard deadline for withdrawal opposed by President Bush…

On Wednesday, Ms. Collins and Mr. Nelson met together at the White House with President Obama, who earlier in the day had met one-on-one in the Oval Office with another Republican moderate, Senator Olympia J. Snowe, also of Maine.

Ms. Snowe personally delivered a list of cuts, totaling about $100 billion, that she said should be made. On leaving the White House, she said it was imperative that “every provision has a job creation component.”

But even as Mr. Obama expressed continued willingness to compromise, he warned critics of the stimulus bill that they were standing in the way of his agenda, and he urged Congress to act fast.

“I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems, that we can ignore the fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive,” he said.

“I reject that theory,” Mr. Obama continued, “and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. So I urge members of Congress to act without delay.” …

Later, in a series of votes on amendments to the bill on Wednesday evening, Senate Democrats easily beat back a number of efforts by Republicans to vastly change the stimulus measure by stripping out spending programs and broadening the tax cuts.

In a number of those votes, the Democrats were joined by Ms. Collins and Ms. Snowe, as well as Senator Arlen Specter of Pennsylvania and George V. Voinovich of Ohio…

Ever notice whom the New York Times calls “centrists” or “moderate” Republicans?

Later, in a series of votes on amendments to the bill on Wednesday evening, Senate Democrats easily beat back a number of efforts by Republicans to vastly change the stimulus measure by stripping out spending programs and broadening the tax cuts.

In a number of those votes, the Democrats were joined by Ms. Collins and Ms. Snowe…

Somehow they always turn out to be Republicans who vote along with the Democrats, even against their own expressed wishes – indeed, even against our troops in the field.

But of course that is all bi-partisanship means to The Times.

It’s the same kind of Orwellian newspeak that says repeats the canard that garnering 52% of the vote without any clear agenda is now a resounding mandate for whatever Mr. Obama now decides he wants to do:

“I’ve heard criticisms of this plan that echo the very same failed theories that helped lead us into this crisis, the notion that tax cuts alone will solve all our problems, that we can ignore the fundamental challenges like energy independence and the high cost of health care and still expect our economy and our country to thrive,” he said.

“I reject that theory,” Mr. Obama continued, “and so did the American people when they went to the polls in November and voted resoundingly for change. So I urge members of Congress to act without delay.” …

Hugo Chavez would be proud.

From a breathless Associated Press:

Obama warns of catastrophe if stimulus delayed

WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama says the recession will turn into a "catastrophe" if the economic stimulus is not passed quickly.

Obama rejected several criticisms of the plan: that tax cuts alone will solve the problem, or that longer-term goals such as energy independence and health care reform are not also critical to address at the same time. The White House released some of Obama’s remarks ahead of an event on executive compensation limits.

Obama subtly referenced his win in November while arguing that recalcitrant lawmakers need to get behind his approach.

Obama urged members of Congress "to act without delay" while also promising to "work to make it stronger."

Historically, recessions and depressions used to be called “panics.” Such as in the “The Great Panic Of 1873.”

And for a real reason. For much of these things are psychological.

Mr. Obama must know this.

So why is he doing his best with his histrionics to drive down the economy?

Mr. Emanuel knows why. As did Mr. Alinsky.

Mr. Obama even admitted it in his second autobiography, The Audacity Of Hope – Thoughts On Reclaiming The American Dream, pp 90-91:

Opportunity

Finally—and most controversially—government has helped structure the social compact between business and the American worker…

Again, it took the shock of the Great Depression, with a third of all people finding themselves out of work, ill housed, ill clothed, and ill fed, for government to correct this imbalance. Two years into office, FDR was able to push through Congress the Social Security Act of 1935, the centerpiece of the new welfare state, a safety net that would lift almost half of all senior citizens out of poverty, provide unemployment insurance for those who had lost their jobs, and provide modest welfare payments to the disabled and the elderly poor. FDR also initiated laws that fundamentally changed the relationship between capital and labor: the forty-hour workweek, child labor laws, and minimum wage laws; and the National Labor Relations Act, which made it possible to organize broad-based industrial unions and forced employers to bargain in good faith…

For a while this seemed to be where the story would end—with FDR saving capitalism from itself through an activist federal government that invests in its people and infrastructure, regulates the marketplace, and protects labor from chronic deprivation. And in fact, for the next twenty-five years, through Republican and Democratic administrations, this model of the American welfare state enjoyed a broad consensus. There were those on the right who complained of creeping socialism, and those on the left who believed FDR had not gone far enough…

Obviously, Mr. Obama is of the second camp. those who believe “FDR had not gone far enough.”