A New Foundation, CIA Memos (Stinging Caterpillars), Tea Party Extremism, China Chips in US Planes?

“And for the support of this declaration, with a firm reliance on the protection of Divine Providence, we mutually pledge to each other our lives, our fortunes and our sacred honor.” - The last sentence in The Declaration of Independence.  1) “A New Foundation” Franklin Roosevelt gave us the New Deal. John Kennedy gave us the New Frontier. In a major domestic policy address at Georgetown University this week, Barack Obama promised -- eight times -- a "New Foundation." For those too thick to have noticed this proclamation of a new era in American history, the White House Web site helpfully titled its speech excerpts "A New Foundation." …The Whopper: The boast that he had "identified $2 trillion in deficit reductions over the next decade." It takes audacity to repeat this after it had been so widely exposed as transparently phony. Most of this $2 trillion is conjured up by refraining from spending $180 billion a year for 10 more years of surges in Iraq. Hell, why not make the "deficit reductions" $10 trillion -- the extra $8 trillion coming from refraining from repeating the $787 billion stimulus package annually through 2019. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/04/16/AR2009041603379.html 2) New pollution limits seen for cars, big plants …It was the first time the federal government had said it was ready to use the Clean Air Act to require power plants, cars and trucks to curtail their release of climate-changing pollution, especially carbon dioxide from the burning of fossil fuels. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_go_ca_st_pe/epa_climate 3) Morning Bell: What Works for Teachers Unions …The data is in. School choice works. And it significantly lower costs. Opportunity Scholarships offered through the program are worth $7,500. Since the participating private schools cannot charge scholarship students more than the amount of their scholarships, that amount is still less than half of the $15,315 that D.C. taxpayers spent per pupil in the 2004–05 school year. See: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/04/14/morning-bell-what-works-for-teachers-unions/ 4) The President Ties His Own Hands on Terror The release of these opinions was unnecessary as a legal matter, and is unsound as a matter of policy. Its effect will be to invite the kind of institutional timidity and fear of recrimination that weakened intelligence gathering in the past, and that we came sorely to regret on Sept. 11, 2001. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB123993446103128041.html 4a) Obama Releases CIA Memos: If We Get Hit Again, He Owns It RUSH: You're going to come up with your own answer. Here you have memos -- and, by the way, if you look at what we are calling "torture," you have to laugh. For example, what was it? "Slapping...putting an insect in with a prisoner in a small confined area." There were 10 of these, but if you go through what are said to be the four worst, waterboarding, of course, which worked on Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. I'm looking here for the details. Yeah, "sleep deprivation, facial slaps, placing one high-ranking al-Qaeda suspect," that would be Abu Zubaydah, "in a cramped box of what he was told was a stinging insect." This guy had a paranoia about stinging insects. They put him in with a caterpillar. CALLER: Oooo! RUSH: A caterpillar doesn't sting. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041709/content/01125109.guest.html And: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601103&sid=aWdlo4rB9Uic&refer=us 5) Schakowsky: Tea parties 'despicable' Gotta love Illinois…why in the world do I live here? Rep. Jan Schakowsky (D-Ill.) blasted "tea party" protests yesterday, labeling the activities "despicable" and shameful." "The 'tea parties' being held today by groups of right-wing activists, and fueled by FOX News Channel, are an effort to mislead the public about the Obama economic plan that cuts taxes for 95 percent of Americans and creates 3.5 million jobs," Schakowsky said in a statement. You can’t cut taxes for people who aren’t paying them. The percentage of Americans paying no tax at all is 43%. Therefore, you cannot, by definition, cut taxes for 95% of Americans.    See: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/04/16/schakowsky-tea-parties-despicable/ 5a) 1 million attend tea parties in 50 states 'Obama has awakened a sleeping giant' An estimated 1 million Americans participated in at least 1,000 tea parties, according to reports by organizers tabulating the nationwide numbers, with documented protests held in 50 states. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=95230 5b) Glenn Beck: You Might Be an Extremist If... …But the one thing our government doesn't seem to understand anymore — and this was on display quite clearly on Wednesday — is that being concerned about your country doesn't make you an extremist. If you attended tea party, you were called — quote — "steeped in insanity" by The L.A. Times; "nutjobs" by The Washington Post; and your actions were seen as quote "not really family viewing," by CNN. And then you had the activists. Left-wing blogs like Daily Kos not only mocked the tea party attendees as GOP plants, they also spoke publicly about infiltrating the events along with groups like ACORN. They were adamant that us extremists would never be able to get together, but they were wrong — I haven't heard a single report of violence. Imagine that kind of peace at a Code Pink protest or a G20 summit? See: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/24165/ 6) Obama 'seeks a new beginning' with Cuba, talks PORT-OF-SPAIN, Trinidad – Trading their warmest words in a half-century, the United States and Cuba built momentum toward renewed ties on Friday, with President Barack Obama declaring he "seeks a new beginning" — including direct talks — with the island's communist regime. As leaders of the Americas gathered for a summit in this Caribbean nation, the head of the Organization of American States even said he'll ask his group to invite Cuba back after 47 years. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090418/ap_on_re_la_am_ca/cb_us_cuba 7) A 'Copper Standard' for the world's currency system? "China has woken up. The West is a black hole with all this money being printed. The Chinese are buying raw materials because it is a much better way to use their $1.9 trillion of reserves. They get ten times the impact, and can cover their infrastructure for 50 years." See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/comment/ambroseevans_pritchard/5160120/A-Copper-Standard-for-the-worlds-currency-system.html 8) Chinese spies may have put chips in US planes WASHINGTON: The Chinese cyber spies have penetrated so deep into the US system — ranging from its secure defence network, banking system, electricity grid to putting spy chips into its defence planes — that it can cause serious damage to the US any time, a top US official on counter-intelligence has said. See: http://timesofindia.indiatimes.com/articleshow/msid-4412075,prtpage-1.cms