Secret Serviced

I'm a guy who respects our federal officers--it must be the veteran in me. However, I have no respect for those who are on duty and have to be on their game when it comes to protecting POTUS (and yes, as advance guys two days before the president arrives, they are on duty).

The story is unfolding but it appears that quite a few of Turbo Tax Timmy's guys were getting busy with the seedier elements of of Cartgena (and cheating them out of well-earned pesos according to this.) The drug angle is even more hideous, especially since Colombia just came through a horrible battle with narco-traffickers.

This is a major problem from an international standpoint as well as our neighbors in South America. The men assigned to protect Obama failed in their assigned mission and that just may make some on-the-fence psycho think he can get close and off the CINC.

Read the link at the NY Post above. This is the best comment to that story:

Jay Allen

Solyndra: $535 Mil. GSA convention: $823 Thou. Columbian hooker: $47 bucks. Obama Administartion: Priceles!

Reply · 152 · Like · Follow Post · 10 hours ago

Saturday Morning News & Notes

Here's what's going on in the world:

-Stock markets melted down world-wide yesterday after Dubai said it would be late on a $60-billion payment. Some think it's the end of the world while some think it shouldn't be a major deal. The markets will be crazy on Monday, though.

-In yet another show of just how amateurish the Obama administration is; they let a wannabe reality show socialite and her husband not only get into the Whitehouse but get close to Obama, the leader of India and Joe Biden. I ask you, who could Obama have appointed to run the agency that is overall in charge of the US Secret Service? What person could run an agency so incredibly poorly? Ah, now I get it; it's led by "Turbo-Tax" Timmy Geithner. Now it makes sense.

-Lucianne Goldberg has started a blog aggregating site. Nice.

-The warming gate story has been completely ignored by newspapers and all but Fox on TV but Mark Steyn and Tim Blair (where the video below was shamelessly stolen from) have grabbed on and they're not going to stop anytime soon.



-The great Global Warming Swindle (TM) has been the biggest and most-expensive bureaucratic bunch of BS ever perpetrated on the American people. A significant part of that scam was subsidies for ethanol, which has proven to be a poor choice for a fuel and only served to appease farmers with high pay for corn that the markets couldn't sustain normally.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

The Phillies continue to win on the road dispatching the Padres last night. Howard and Utley homered and Lidge seems like he's worked out his issues and is the same closer he was last season.

Here's what else is going on in the world:

-Geithner: "Chinese financial assets are very safe," Chinese audience: Laughter. An administration that is taken seriously by no one.

-Obama can't go to New York or even Cairo without pissing people off.

-Clarence Thomas is one cool dude. Plus, he flies coach.

-The GM bailout works out to over $500,000 per job saved. Jersey Nut had an alternative that would have cost half as much.

-Obama invites some Iranians to 4th of July barbecues with no preconditions. I'd leave the the bacon off the burgers Barry-O.

-Are our tax dollars are paying for jihad radio?

Geithner Keeping a Close Eye on Bailout $...or Not

Tim Geithner was the only man who could save the economy according to Obama. Despite the fact that he failed to pay taxes and would oversee the Treasury Dept...nothing to see there.

No, Geithner was going to be our watchdog and ensure that the money we doled out was used for its intended purpose like getting credit freed up and propping up banks. It appears he was incredibly wrong on the former and is looking like a complete buffoon on the latter:

In the first major disclosure of corruption in the $750-billion financial bailout program, federal investigators said Monday they have opened 20 criminal probes into possible securities fraud, tax violations, insider trading and other crimes.

The cases represent only the first wave of investigations, and the total fraud could ultimately reach into the tens of billions of dollars, according to Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general overseeing the bailout program.

The disclosures reinforce fears that the hastily designed and rapidly changing bailout program run by the Treasury Department and Federal Reserve is going to carry a heavy price of fraud against taxpayers -- even as questions grow about its ability to stabilize the nation's financial system.

You're doing a heckuva job, Timmy.

And what of the plan to buy up toxic assets? It seems just as well thought out as the bailout plan was:

Indeed, much of the 247-page report released in Washington today by Barofsky's office focuses on a segment of the bailout that is only now being put into motion -- an effort to buy toxic securities from banks and other investment groups in which the federal government would provide up to 92.5% of the money. That effort could be the most vulnerable to fraud, Barofsky said, because investors would have so little at risk.

Now that's what I'm talking about, baby. Allow the ones who raped clients when they were privatized pilfer the taxpayer now that they're nationalized. They put the progress in "progressive" do they not?

Yeah, I for one feel just groovy about the state of the Treasury Dept. and the amazing work they've done there. They've destroyed 200+ years of hard work in three-months. They should be so proud of that accomplishment. Sure, they'll have a couple of trials and make a big deal about putting a few guilty guys away but the 99% who don't get caught will have a blast with our money personally handed them by Obama.

Maybe it's just me but after 100-days of hope and change, I'm a bit hope and changed out.

Market Rockets on Toxic Debt Plan, Housing News

I've always said I wouldn't become like a liberal and cheer every time something bad happens to the president I disagree with and come up with some lame excuse every time something good does. If we pull out of this, I'll be the first to credit Obama.

One day (or week) doesn't mean anything of consequence but it sure beats the alternative:

March 23 (Bloomberg) -- U.S. stocks rallied, capping the market’s steepest two-week gain since 1938, as investors speculated the Obama administration’s plan to rid banks of toxic assets will spur growth and investor Mark Mobius said a new bull market has begun. Treasuries and the dollar fell.

Bank of America Corp. and Citigroup Inc. both soared at least 19 percent as the U.S. Treasury said it will finance as much as $1 trillion in purchases of distressed assets. Exxon Mobil Corp. and Chevron Corp. jumped more than 6.7 percent after oil rose to an almost four-month high. The Standard & Poor’s 500 Index extended its rebound from a 12-year closing low on March 9 to 22 percent as all 10 of its main industry groups advanced.

Here's the housing data:

US existing home sales saw a surprise rebound in February, rising 5.1 percent to a stronger-than-expected annual pace of 4.72 million units, the National Association of Realtors reported Monday.

The rise marked a hopeful sign for a sector hurting for more than two years, but the industry group cautioned that sales remain weak and prices continued to fall.

The national median existing-home price for all housing types was 165,400 dollars in February, down 15.5 percent from a year ago.

The level of home sales was well above expectations of an annual pace of 4.45 million but it remained down 4.6 percent from a year ago.

Good news considering we're at about the lowest point we can be at and (hopefully) the only way to go is up. But, until the average American feels confident and job markets start showing some life, I'm not exactly tossing confetti and planning any major improvements on my house.

All in all a good day. Let's hope it continues into tomorrow and next week.

Update: Er, well, I was feeling good but now, not so much.

Ignorance is Not an Excuse, Obama

Let's say when the economic crisis broke, the leaders of Countrywide and AIG came out and said that a division of their company knew what was happening but they didn't alert management and that resulted in the meltdowns of the companies. What would the Democrats have said? I suspect it would have been feigned disbelief and endless cries of "mismanagement" or even accusations of outright lying directed at the CEO's of those companies.

Now we hear that the Treasury Dept. knew all about the AIG bonuses and failed to inform their boss or the President but since they're Dems, it was an oversight:

Federal Reserve officials knew for months about bonuses at American International Group but failed to tell the Obama administration, according to government and company officials, exposing problems in a relationship that is vital to addressing the financial crisis.

As pressure mounted on AIG employees to return the bonuses, new details emerged yesterday about what the Fed, the Treasury Department and the White House knew regarding the payments and when. AIG executives said the Fed was informed three months ago by the company that it would pay $165 million by March 15 to employees working at its most troubled division. The Treasury and White House said they learned of the payments from Fed officials only days before they were due.

You're kidding me, right? There's no way in hell that Geithner didn't know prior to March 10th and if that's the case, he should be fired for running an unbelievably inept organization full of scheming or idiotic people.

But the ultimate blame lies with Obama, he's the top man and if he had a management style even remotely effective, he'd have known months ago. The chain of command works boths ways as anyone who ever served in the military or run a business knows, Obama has not been a part of either and this incident just magnifies his incompetence. We on the right have been warning for a year that Obama was as unqualified a candidate as has ever run for president and he proves us right every damn day, unfortunately.

Someone is lying here and either way you look at it, it doesn't bode well for us as a nation over the next few years. Either Geithner's department is so mismanaged that they didn't alert their boss that a PR hurricane was brewing or they did tell him and he's flat out fibbing. Obama's choice and the so called "only man that can do this job" found out on the tenth and didn't tell Obama until two days later? I'm really supposed to believe that?

Any way you look at it, there's some serious problems at the White House and Treasury and they are the ones who are supposed to be watching our misspent tax dollars. Firing the tax cheat Geithner seems like it would be a good start and then fire anyone who knew about the bonuses three months ago and failed to alert him. Then investigate exactly when Obama and especially Sen Dodd knew about the bonuses as well.

To be honest, I don't think any of this is true and the WaPo is just giving Obama cover. I guess when it comes to looking like either a bad manager, stupid or a liar, bad manager will win out everytime.

Thursday Night News and Notes

Here's what's a happenin' in this crazy-ass world:

-France returns to the fold. Welcome back.

-Gov. Perry joins Gov. Sanford in rejecting stim $ for unemployment. The conservative movement is stirring. Sanford is more creative, though.

-Rep. Maxine Waters joins the growing list of Democrats who are entangled in money scandals. This may be a record-breaking year of scandals and they're mostly Dem. They should be about as proud as NJ was to have Camden named the most violent city in the US.

-Liberal hack Margaret Carlson says that Geithner is really smart when no one is around to notice it. Get off your knees, Maggie.

-Obama considering moving National Guard troops to the border to deal with the nasty drug war spilling across our southern border. Perhaps if Bush and McCain had pushed to build a border fence...

...Tony Ward is the President’s nominee to head the Justice Department’s Civil Division. He was John Walker-Lindh's (aka: Johnny Taliban) defense lawyer. So we all have this straight; you defend a guy who converted to Islam and then fought against his own country--what sane people call treason--and you get a nice gig with the next prez. About what I expected from the new president.

The Obama Effect Strikes Again

When it comes to global warming, the Gore Effect refers to the uncanny ability of global warmingist's to plan events and have the weather turn dreadful with massive snow storms occurring.

We now have the Obama Effect whereby the markets will tank as soon as he opens his piehole about his plans for saving the economy.

At 11:20, Obama made remarks to the media about the economy during a presser on earmark reform and guess what happened?

Like clockwork we suffered a nearly one hundred point drop on his remarks. Confidence should join hope and change in the Obama slogan.

Add Geithner to the mix and you have a double whammy of concerned Wall Streeters yelling "SELL!".

Chart via Bloomberg.

The Sad State of the US Media

The liberal media in the US is still in the throes of Obamania and it looks as though it won't end soon although we've seen some come to heir senses.

Here we have two examples. Firts we have Hardball where Chris Matthews is owned by Ari Fleischer. Second, we have Andrea Mitchell actually apologizing to Barney Frank for reporting on Obama nominee's tax problems. My goodness, the media reporting that the nominee for Treasury Secretary didn't pay taxes when he will run the IRS is a reason to plead guilty.

Oy.

It's going to be a long four years, folks.

Tuesday Night News and Notes

A beautiful day in America's Finest City.

Here's what's new:

The 2nd Amendment is under siege again.

In the unfathomable world of Israeli politics, Netanyahu won by losing I think.

The bailout plan is officially a joke when it draws bipartisan laughter from Congress.

America hates the Obama plan for getting us out of recession. Let's make it bigger.

Bird Dog juxtaposes two views on ice melt. I'm still confused.

Pic at right is of Sunset Cliffs in San Diego. It's one of my beautiful wife's favorite spots.