Uncle Sam becomes Mr. Goodwrench

In an effort to boost sales and calm consumer fears, the Obama Administration unveiled a new warranty program Monday morning backing the warranties on new vehicles purchased from domestic auto manufacturers.

"Your warranty will be safe. In fact, it will be safer than it's ever been. Because starting today, the United States government will stand behind your warranty," President Obama said in a press conference Monday.

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Environmental racism and justice

Obama's new "green czar" - Van Jones in an interview with Mother Jones:

"Well, the only reason that we have the unsustainable accounting that we have right now is because incinerators, dumping grounds, and sacrifice zones were put where poor people live. It would never have been allowed if you had to put all the incinerators and nasty stuff in rich people's neighborhoods; we'd have had a sustainable economy a long time ago. We'd have had a clean and green economy a long time ago. It's the environmental racism that allowed the powerful people in society to turn a blind eye for decades to the downsides of the industrial system that got us to this point. So there's a direct relationship between environmental racism and the lack of sustainability of society as a whole. We were the canaries in the coal mines, crying for relief. Now finally the consequences are affecting everyone, with global warming and everything else. The other thing is that the environmental justice agenda is also changing. Before, it was much stronger on demanding equal protection from environmental bad. Now we are also demanding equal opportunity and equal access to environmental good. We don't want to be first and worst with all the toxins and all the negative effects of global warming, and then benefit last and least from all the breakthroughs in solar, wind energy, organic food, all the positives. We want an equal share, an equitable share, of the work wealth and the benefits of the transition to a green economy."

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Loose cannon or true intentions?

Geithner, at the Council on Foreign Relations, said the U.S. is "open" to a headline-grabbing proposal by the governor of the China's central bank, which was widely reported as being a call for a new global currency to replace the dollar, but which Geithner described as more modest and "evolutionary."

"I haven’t read the governor’s proposal. He’s a very thoughtful, very careful distinguished central banker. I generally find him sensible on every issue," Geithner said, saying that however his interpretation of the proposal was to increase the use of International Monetary Fund's special drawing rights -- shares in the body held by its members -- not creating a new currency in the literal sense.

"We’re actually quite open to that suggestion – you should see it as rather evolutionary rather building on the current architecture rather than moving us to global monetary union," he said.

"The only thing concrete I saw was expanding the use of the [special drawing rights]," Geithner said. "Anything he’s thinking about deserves some consideration."

The continued use of the dollar as a reserve currency, he added, "depends..on how effective we are in the United States...at getting our fiscal system back to the point where people judge it as sustainable over time."

President Obama flatly rejected the notion of a new global currency at last night's press conference.

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Finally...something I can agree with

As the Obama Administration's plans to lift toxic assets off bank balance sheets took form, speculation swirled over whether private-sector investors could be enticed to take part. Now another question is looming: Will the banks participate? On Mar. 23, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner unveiled the latest effort by the government to stabilize banks and unlock frozen credit markets. The long-awaited plan would use $75 billion to $100 billion of federal bailout funds—together with an equal amount of private-sector money and federal loans and guarantees that could bring the total investment to $1 trillion over time—to buy questionable, mostly mortgage-backed assets from banks.

The market soared in response, with the Dow Jones industrial average rising nearly 500 points, or 6.8%. The financial industry hailed the plan as a solid fix that could revive a moribund credit market. But while that reaction relieved some of the immediate pressures on Geithner and the Administration, it was hardly unanimous. Critics called it a series of opaque subsidies that, at best, would prop up the banks and their shareholders without doing much to revive lending. And the embattled Treasury secretary clearly knows he faces huge challenges ahead. "One day's [market] reaction does not make a plan," he said, speaking later that evening at a conference on the future of finance sponsored by The Wall Street Journal.

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Federal community organizers

Follow-up on H.R. 1388 from www.gop.gov: Why do we need the federal government to fund this for $6 billion?

Furthermore, some Members are concerned that AmeriCorps volunteers are currently employed (and recruited) by community organizations including Planned Parenthood.  Members have expressed concern that federal funding should not support "volunteers" to be paid to work for abortion providers and grant them further flexibility with their finances and resources (understanding that money is fungible).  For a recent example of an AmeriCorps job opportunity at a Planned Parenthood, click here.  These Members are also concerned that without the proper safeguards, opportunities for community service participants to engage in activities that many find inappropriate (i.e. ACORN, Planned Parenthood) could become more commonplace under the Obama Administration.

Additionally, some Members have expressed concern that Republican language which would have prohibited funding under this bill to be used to develop or distribute materials or operate programs directed at youth that are designed to promote or encourage sexual activity, distribute obscene materials to minors on school grounds, or provide sex education (unless such education is age appropriate and includes discussion of the health benefits of abstinence, HIV-prevention instruction, etc.) has been purposefully left out of the text of the bill-allowing such activities to be funded with federal dollars under the guise of community service programs. 

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Obama-Jugend?

The U.S. House of Representatives has approved a plan to set up a new "volunteer corps" and consider whether "a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people" should be developed.

The legislation also refers to "uniforms

" that would be worn by the "volunteers" and the "need" for a "public service academy, a 4-year institution" to "focus on training" future "public sector leaders." The training, apparently, would occur at "campuses."

The vote yesterday came on H.R. 1388, which reauthorizes through 2014 the National and Community Service Act of 1990 and the Domestic Volunteer Service Act of 1973, acts that originally, among other programs, funded the AmeriCorps and the National Senior Service Corps.

It not only reauthorizes the programs, but also includes "new programs and studies" and is expected to be funded with an allocation of $6 billion over the next five years, according to the Congressional Budget Office.

Many, however, are raising concerns that the program, which is intended to include 250,000 "volunteers," is the beginning of what President Obama called his "National Civilian Security Force" in a a speech last year in which he urged creating an organization as big and well-funded as the U.S. military. He has declined since then to elaborate. 

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The New World Order

WASHINGTON – The Obama administration on Wednesday formally endorsed a U.N. statement calling for the worldwide decriminalization of homosexuality, a measure that former President George W. Bush had refused to sign.

The move was the administration's latest in reversing Bush-era decisions that have been heavily criticized by human rights and other groups. The United States was the only western nation not to sign onto the declaration when it came up at the U.N. General Assembly in December.

"The United States supports the U.N.'s statement on human rights, sexual orientation and gender identity and is pleased to join the other 66 U.N. member states who have declared their support of the statement," said State Department spokesman Robert Wood...

According to negotiators, the Bush team had concerns that those sections could commit the federal government on matters that fall under state jurisdiction. In some states, landlords and private employers are allowed to discriminate on the basis of sexual orientation; on the federal level, gays are not allowed to serve openly in the military.

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Voter Fraud? Who's Counting

The U.S. Census is supposed to be free of politics, but one group with a history of voter fraud, ACORN, is participating in next year's count, raising concerns about the politicization of the decennial survey.

The Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now signed on as a national partner with the U.S. Census Bureau in February 2009 to assist with the recruitment of the 1.4 million temporary workers needed to go door-to-door to count every person in the United States -- currently believed to be more than 306 million people.

A U.S. Census "sell sheet," an advertisement used to recruit national partners, says partnerships with groups like ACORN "play an important role in making the 2010 Census successful," including by "help[ing] recruit census workers."

The bureau is currently employing help from more than 250 national partners, including TARGET and the National Association for the Advancement of Colored People (NAACP), to assist in the hiring effort.

But ACORN's partnership with the 2010 Census is worrisome to lawmakers who say past allegations of fraud should raise concerns about the organization.

"It's a concern, especially when you look at all the different charges of voter fraud. And it's not just the lawmakers' concern. It should be the concern of every citizen in the country," Rep. Lynn A. Westmoreland, R-Ga., vice ranking member of the subcommittee for the U.S. Census, told FOXNews.com. "We want an enumeration. We don't want to have any false numbers."

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Blame: The Secret to Success is Knowing Who to Blame for Your Failures*

In his inaugural address, President Obama proclaimed "an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas that for far too long have strangled our politics."

It hasn't taken long for the recriminations to return — or for the Obama administration to begin talking about the unwelcome "inheritance" of its predecessor.

Over the past month, Obama has reminded the public at every turn that he is facing problems "inherited" from the Bush administration, using increasingly bracing language to describe the challenges his administration is up against. The "deepening economic crisis" that the president described six days after taking office became "a big mess" in remarks this month to graduating police cadets in Columbus, Ohio.

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*From www.despair.com

Christians Optimistic But Disappointed in Obama

Conservative evangelical and Catholic leaders who went out on a political limb by aligning themselves with the Obama administration are expressing feelings ranging from disappointment to optimism in their reaction to the president's decisions so far on culture war issues.

Although most of President Obama's moves on abortion and stem cell research have been expected, some right-leaning Christian leaders who took a risk sitting down at the table with a Democratic president feel that several major decisions fall short of the common ground Obama had promised on divisive social issues.

Obama's reversal this week of Bush-era restrictions on federal funding for embryonic stem cell research is the latest example.

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Had to see this coming

WASHINGTON -- President Obama says he wants to reverse "Don't Ask Don't Tell," the Clinton-era policy that prevents openly gay men and women from serving in the military. But so far the White House has been noncommittal about how and when he will try to make that happen.

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I guess failure is an option

On the morning of Sept. 11, 2001, just minutes before learning of the terrorist attacks on America, Democratic strategist James Carville was hoping for President Bush to fail, telling a group of Washington reporters: "I certainly hope he doesn't succeed."

Carville was joined by Democratic pollster Stanley Greenberg, who seemed encouraged by a survey he had just completed that revealed public misgivings about the newly minted president.

"We rush into these focus groups with these doubts that people have about him, and I'm wanting them to turn against him," Greenberg admitted.

The pollster added with a chuckle of disbelief: "They don't want him to fail. I mean, they think it matters if the president of the United States fails."

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Science, not political ideology

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama is ending former President George W. Bush's limits on using federal dollars for embryonic stem cell research, with advisers calling the move a clear signal that science — not political ideology — will guide the administration.

Now that President Obama has established his political foundation - science, not political ideology - I'm confident that any day now, he'll abandon his position on global warming.

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Even with lipstick, it's still a pig

(CNN) -- As a spending bill loaded with pork makes its way through Congress, President Obama is getting pushback from members of his own party who are questioning his vow to end wasteful spending.

The Senate could vote on the spending bill as early as Thursday.

The president on Wednesday pledged turn tide on an "era of fiscal irresponsibility," reiterating his campaign promise that the days of "pork ... as a strategy" are over.

And in a prime-time address before a joint session of Congress, Obama last week praised the $787 billion stimulus package signed into law, telling the nation, "I'm proud that we passed a recovery plan free of earmarks, and I want to pass a budget next year that ensures that each dollar we spend reflects only our most important national priorities."

But some in the audience found that hard to swallow.

"There was just a roar of laughter -- because there were earmarks," said Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri.

Earmarks, sometimes called "pork," are unrelated pet projects that members of Congress insert in spending bills. 

The scoffing continues as the president hammers away at reducing wasteful spending and saving taxpayers money while lawmakers on Capitol Hill load up a spending bill with more than 8,000 earmarks totaling nearly $8 billion.

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HHS pick: Abortion watch

Anti-abortion activists are planning to strongly oppose Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's pick for secretary of health and human services, saying the Kansas governor's positions on abortion and her ties to a late-term abortion provider are too extreme for her to be in charge of America's health care policy.

Kansas-based Operation Rescue says it will launch a full-out campaign against Sebelius because, as governor, she has had the support of Dr. George Tiller, who has been indicted for allegedly performing late-term abortions on underage girls...

Sebelius signed a bill known as "Alexa's Law," which allows for charges to brought against someone who commits violence on a fetus, and she signed legislation to require abortion providers to submit fetal tissue samples to the Kansas Bureau of Investigations when the mother is younger than 14 years old.

But Kansas state Rep. Steve Brunk, a Republican who sponsored Alexa's Law, told FOXNews.com that Sebelius is a clear, committed abortion rights protector who signed the legislation only because it was a criminal statute rolled into five other bills she supported.
"If she vetoed Alexa's Law, she would have vetoed all five others," Brunk said. Instead, he said, Sebelius decided to sign the "mega bill."

"The political fallout from that would have been more than she wanted," he said. "I think if she had a chance, she would have vetoed Alexa's Law in a nanosecond."

Brunk said that, to his knowledge, Sebelius has vetoed every piece of legislation aimed at a "woman's right to know" about abortions, including legislation on statistical reporting and on requiring women to look at sonograms before going through with the procedure.

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