Prepare To Be Offended

What kind of idiot do you have to be to want to appoint a pro abortion person as US Ambassador to the Vatican. The Vatican of all places.

Vatican sources told Il Giornale that their support for abortion disqualified Ms Kennedy and other Roman Catholics President Barack Obama had been seeking to appoint.

Mr Obama was reportedly seeking to reward John F Kennedy’s daughter, who publicly gave her support to his election bid. She had been poised to replace Hillary Clinton as New York senator, but dropped out amid criticism that she lacked enough experience for the job.

The Italian paper said that the Vatican strongly disapproved of Mr Obama’s support for abortion and stem cell research. The impasse over the ambassadorial appointment threatens to cloud his meeting with the Pope during a G8 summit in Itay in July.

What the hell was Obama thinking? Seriously, what kind of moron would think this would be OK with the Vatican?

Isn’t it interesting that the democrat party is always seen as the “party of the people”, always striving to help the little guy and the republican party is always seen as the party of the rich?

Then why is it that the democrat party is so full of rich people?

Top White House economic adviser Lawrence Summers received about $5.2 million over the past year in compensation from hedge fund D.E. Shaw, and also received hundreds of thousands of dollars in speaking fees from major financial institutions.

A financial disclosure form released by the White House Friday afternoon shows that Mr. Summers made frequent appearances before Wall Street firms including J.P. Morgan, Citigroup, Goldman Sachs and Lehman Brothers. He also received significant income from Harvard University and from investments, the form shows.

In total, Mr. Summers made a total of about 40 speaking appearances to financial sector firms and other places, with fees totaling about $2.77 million. Fees ranged from $10,000 for a Yale University speech to $135,000 for an appearance paid for by Goldman Sachs & Co…

Imagine that. But wait there is more!

David Axelrod, the president’s top political advisor, reported in his form that he will get $3 million over the next five years from the sale of his two media consulting firms, ASK Public Strategies, LLC and AKP&D Message and Media. In addition, Mr. Axelrod took a salary of $896,776 last year from AKP&D and reported $651,914 in partnership income from the two companies.

In total, Mr. Axelrod reported assets valued between $6.9 million and $9.5 million. Mr. Axelrod’s clients were mostly political campaigns, including those of Rep. Patrick Kennedy, New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, and Chicago Mayor Richard M. Daley. He also reported receiving money from large corporations such as AT&T Inc., Comcast Corp. and the nuclear energy company Exelon Corp…

…Valerie Jarrett, assistant to the president for intergovernmental affairs, lists a $300,000 salary and $550,000 in deferred compensation from The Habitat Executive Services, Inc., in Chicago.

Ms. Jarrett also disclosed payments of more than $346,000 for service on boards of directors that reflect her political ties, and work in Chicago real estate and community development.

She was paid $76,000 last year for service as a director of Navigant Consulting, Inc. a Chicago-based global consulting group with governmental clients. She received $146,600 for service on the board of USG Corporation, a building materials manufacturer, and $58,000 to serve on the board of Rreef American REIT II, a real estate investment trust based in San Francisco. The Chicago Stock Exchange, Inc., paid her $34,444 to serve on its board.

Deputy National Security Advisor Tom Donilon earned $3.9 million as a partner at the law firm of O’Melveny & Myers LLP, where his clients include Citigroup, Inc., Goldman, Sachs & Co., and Obama fundraiser and heiress Penny Pritzker.

Carol Browner, assistant to the president for energy and climate change, disclosed earnings of between $1 million and $5 million from lobbying firm Downey McGrath Group, Inc., where her husband, Thomas Downey, is a principal. She states $450,000 in “member distribution” income, plus retirement and other benefits from The Albright Group, a lobbying firm whose principals include former Secretary of State Madeline Albright.

And yet this is the party that wants to soak the rich. Perhaps they are jealous, or just want power for themselves. Who knows, but I’m tired of hearing about the democrats being for the little guy. Bull Shit.

h/t Michelle Malkin

Not content to ram the stimulus and omnibus bills down your throat, the democrats are now looking to ram a health care bill down everyone’s throat by using a little congressional trickery.

From the AP:

Majority Leader Harry Reid indicated Wednesday he’s willing to move sweeping health care legislation through the Senate with a procedural maneuver that would block a GOP filibuster. The prospect of the controversial tactic has already ignited Republicans’ ire, and key Senate Democratic chairmen have said they don’t want to do it.

Reid, D-Nev., took a different position on a conference call with reporters.

“I think it’s something we need to consider,” Reid said.

At issue is a so-called reconciliation bill, which could pass with a simple majority of 51 votes and without Democrats fearing a GOP filibuster. Democrats would struggle to gather 60 votes needed to break a filibuster for something as complex as a plan to meet President Barack Obama’s goal of overhauling the nation’s health care system to cover 48 million uninsured Americans.

Revising health care via reconciliation has been viewed favorably by House Democrats. The House Budget Committee included language providing for the method in its annual budget resolution released Wednesday. Reconciliation is not favored by Senate Budget Committee Chairman Kent Conrad, D-N.D., and was not part of his committee’s plan.

White House officials reiterated Wednesday that it’s not their preferred method but they don’t want to take it off the table.

So basically they know their bill won’t stand on its own, they don’t care what the cost is going to be and they don’t want to hear alternatives and just want to force it upon the American people. Really starting to like this “Hope and Change”.

As the protesting over the AIG bonuses continue, more execs are leaving the troubled company and I don’t blame them. From Hot Air:

Several more employees are leaving the controversial financial products unit that brought American International Group Inc to its knees last year, according to a person with knowledge of developments there.

The resignations are in addition to the “handful” of senior AIG Financial Products executives who have already given notice, said the person, who could not quantify the total number of departures.

To date, AIG said the situation at the financial products unit remains “manageable,” despite the departures. But if too many employees quit, Chief Executive Edward Liddy has warned it could be disastrous for AIG and, ultimately, for U.S. taxpayers who are the insurer’s majority owners. Employees there were promised retention payments more than a year ago, on condition they stayed long enough to wind down their areas of business, effectively working themselves out of a job.

But now some have changed their minds, fed up after 10 days of ridicule and scorn from lawmakers who broadly derided the bonuses, demonstrators picketing outside AIG offices and a threat by New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo to publicly name anyone who did not return the bonuses.

The employees still working are not the ones who caused the large losses and “are being unfairly persecuted by elected officials,” wrote Jake DeSantis, an executive vice-president for the Wilton, Connecticut-based financial products unit, in a resignation letter printed by the New York Times on Wednesday.

This is the problem with the mob mentality and an over eager congress and administration that wishes to hide their real problems. They don’t pay attention to the facts, or worse, the consequences of their actions.

Kiss your billions dumped into AIG good bye.

No kidding. Who the hell is Congress to say that they can retro tax these people? They are all pissed of because AIG is honoring their contract with their employees and yet they waste hundreds billions of dollars of our money on their shit pet projects?

I can understand a little bit how people get upset they the execs are getting their money when the company needed a bailout. However, like the idiots that the public usually are, they fail to see that a) AIG made those obligations before receiving money and b) the administration knew about it.

I wish I was one of these execs. I would get in front of congress and them what fucking hypocrites they are and if they want to take my money away they should give up everything they’ve received from AIG (hello Chris Dodd and Obama), stop making deals they then turn around and renege on.

All over the country people are protesting the stimulus bill. When was the last time you saw a republican-based protest?

As reported in the NYT:

Full details of Mr. Obama’s budget for the 2010 fiscal year will be released in April. The outline on Thursday will make clear that he intends to push ahead on promises to contain health care costs and expand insurance coverage, and to move toward an energy cap-and-trade system for controlling emissions of gases blamed for climate change.

Human Events shows the costs of such a system:

The potential costs to America from cap-and-trade policies are enormous. The Department of Energy estimates that S. 2191, the Warner-Lieberman cap-and-trade proposal, will increase the cost of coal for power generation by between 161% and 413%. DOE estimates GDP losses (see chart) over the 21-year period they forecast, at between $444 billion and $1.308 trillion, with particular damage to the manufacturing sector. (This gives some hope that organized labor will, in a rare occurrence, oppose Democratic leaders on this issue.) Winegarden estimates that this bill could increase unemployment by 2.7% or about 4 million jobs. In fact, companies are already preparing to avoid increased level and volatility of American energy prices by setting up factories and partnerships in countries which won’t be subject to cap-and-trade restrictions…proving with real-world behavior of producers that no carbon-limiting regulation can succeed if it is not universal.

Yep, 4 million jobs. Let’s face it, cap and trade is just another redistribution program. This time from one company to another. I suppose the idea is to make companies produce less emissions to solve a problem that doesn’t really exist. What it will do for sure is cost companies billions of dollars in a thinly disguised tax. Just what the economy needs isn’t it?

h/t GatewayPundit

“With that comes an unprecedented obligation to do so wisely, free from politics and personal agendas,” the president said. “On this I will not compromise or tolerate any shortcut.”

Free from politics and personal agendas? Really? Like that 8 billion Reid Railroad? or the 30 million mouse for Pelosi?

There is more though:

“If a federal agency proposes a project that will waste that money, I will not hesitate to call them out on it, and put a stop to it,” Obama said.

Now we’re talking!! Maybe that Millionaire Mouse won’t make it now!

FNC had it right:

The president did not specify how, exactly, he would call out one of his administration’s own agencies or a local government.

First it was the republicans, then it was black pastors, now it is his fellow senator from Illinois.

How much more can Burris take before he finally has to call it quits? Maybe he will go on a road show like Blago did. That would be entertaining.

This is unbelievable. Obama is actually telling people to live within their means while he is stealing their money, their kids money and probably their grandkids money.

h/t GatewayPundit