Fed Gets More Power?, Single Payer System, Obama Fires Inspector General, Durbin Insider Trading

1) The Fed to Get More Power? The White House is set to unveil its much-anticipated revamp of the financial regulatory system this Wednesday, reports WSJ. Among the big, new changes: The Federal Reserve is set to get the power to unwind and shut down large institutions as the FDIC currently has for more plain vanilla banks. …Lawmakers are expected to take issue with several of the plan's more thorny issues, including how to create a system that won't simply bail out large financial companies when they topple. Giving the Fed more clout -- in light of recent criticism from lawmakers, both Republican and Democratic, of its secrecy and accumulation of power -- will also be a controversial idea. See: http://www.businessinsider.com/this-guys-getting-more-power-2009-6 2) The 'Public Plan' Would Be the Only Plan The Obama administration and the Democratic congressional leadership appear poised to create a "competing" government health insurer as part of its health-care reform. President Obama believes this would provide "a better range of choices, make the health care market more competitive, and keep the insurance companies honest," as he wrote to Sens. Edward Kennedy and Max Baucus on June 2. In reality, equal competition between a public plan and private plans would be impossible. The public plan would inexorably crowd out private plans, leading to a single-payer system. …The simple truth is that equal competition between a government health-insurance plan and private plans would be impossible. An ostensibly competing public plan would make a single-payer system inevitable. Health-care providers and other Americans should recognize this reality and be prepared for the consequences. See: http://online.wsj.com/article/SB124502127377113741.html 2a) Obama’s Unhealthy Reform It's hard to know whether President Obama's health-care "reform" is naive, hypocritical or simply dishonest. Probably all three. The president keeps saying it's imperative to control runaway health spending. He's right. The trouble is that what's being promoted as health-care "reform" almost certainly won't suppress spending and, quite probably, will do the opposite. …The one certain consequence of expanding insurance coverage is that it would raise spending. When people have insurance, they use more health services. That's one reason Obama's campaign proposal was estimated to cost $1.2 trillion over a decade (the other reason is that the federal government would pick up some costs now paid by others). Indeed, the higher demand for health care might raise costs across the board, increasing both government spending and private premiums. See: http://www.newsweek.com/id/202015 3) Dick Durbin and Insider Trading RUSH: Here are the details from Dick Durbin. Ed Morrissey posted this at Hot Air on the 13th of June. "As U.S. stock markets plummeted last September, the Senate's No. 2 Democrat, Dick Durbin, sold more than $115,000 worth of stocks and mutual-fund shares and used much of the money to invest in Warren Buffett's Berkshire Hathaway Inc. The Illinois senator's 2008 financial disclosure statement shows he sold mutual-fund shares worth $42,696 on Sept. 19, the day after then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke urged congressional leaders in a closed meeting to craft legislation to help financially troubled banks." One day after being briefed on how bad it was, Durbin sells stocks in one place and sends 'em to another place. The same day" as the briefing "he bought $43,562 worth of Berkshire Hathaway's Class B stock...  "Altogether, Durbin sold investments worth $116,000 in September. By Oct. 2, he had invested $98,046 in Omaha, Neb.-based Berkshire Hathaway, the form shows. The Standard & Poor's 500 index plunged 4.7 percent last Sept. 15 after the bankruptcy of Lehman Brothers Holdings Inc. and Bank of America Corp.'s government-engineered takeover of Merrill Lynch & Co. By the end of October, the index had fallen 22.6 percent." Durbin got out before any of it happened, after meeting with Paulson and Bernanke.   "Durbin's spokesman says that the September meeting revealed nothing of an insider nature, and that Durbin traded along with the market as the storm clouds gathered," says Ed Morrissey. Don't buy it, folks. Martha Stewart went to jail for something far less than this.  See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_061509/content/01125104.guest.html And: http://hotair.com/archives/2009/06/13/durbin-cashed-out-on-inside-information-sun-times/ 4) Gerald Walpin speaks: The inside story of the AmeriCorps firing The White House's decision to fire AmeriCorps inspector general Gerald Walpin came amid politically-charged tensions inside the Corporation for National and Community Service, the organization that runs AmeriCorps. Top executives at the Corporation, Walpin explained in an hour-long interview Saturday, were unhappy with his investigation into the misuse of AmeriCorps funds by Kevin Johnson, the former NBA star who is now mayor of Sacramento, California and a prominent supporter of President Obama. Walpin's investigation also sparked conflict with the acting U.S. attorney in Sacramento amid fears that the probe -- which could have resulted in Johnson being barred from ever winning another federal grant -- might stand in the way of the city receiving its part of billions of dollars in federal stimulus money. After weeks of standoff, Walpin, whose position as inspector general is supposed to be protected from influence by political appointees and the White House, was fired. See: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/opinion/blogs/beltway-confidential/Gerald-Walpin-speaks-the-inside-story-of-the-AmeriCorps-firing-48030697.html 4a) Probe launched in suspicious firing of inspector general Senator blasts administration: 'Intimidation or retaliation cannot be tolerated' …As WND reported, President Obama fired Gerald Walpin, the inspector general in charge of rooting out corruption in the AmeriCorps program, shortly after Walpin called for action against a prominent Obama supporter, Sacramento Mayor Kevin Johnson, who had misappropriated hundreds of thousands of dollars in federal grants. …Included in those protections is a requirement that the president submit to Congress, in writing, his reasons for dismissing any inspector general.  President Obama's initial explanation, however, was merely, "It is vital that I have the fullest confidence in the appointees serving as inspectors general. That is no longer the case with regard to this inspector general."  "That's a conclusion, not a reason," Walpin told Fox News television host Glenn Beck today. "This is shocking. I know of no other I.G. who has been terminated like this."  Walpin further told Beck he's considering "all alternatives," but said, "The most important thing is that the public knows."  According to the Inspector General Reform Act of 2008, co-sponsored by Obama, inspectors general must also be given 30 days notice of their dismissal.  The firing of Walpin, however, took on a very different form.  Walpin confirmed to WND that he received last week a sudden and unexpected ultimatum from White House counsel Norman L. Eisen: Resign within the hour or suffer being fired. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101243 4b) Glenn Beck: It's us vs. them Have you seen the story I'm shocked. No one is on this story yet. President Obama fired an inspector general on Thursday night. Now, inspector generals, their job is to be independent. Their job is to be the watchdog. Well, he fired him on Thursday night, said, I want your resignation or you're terminated. Well, the problem with that is is that violates the law. There's this law, and the president probably didn't know, but there is this new law that was passed and it was, you can't fire inspector generals without giving them 30 days notice and you also have to alert congress and tell them why and detail all the details on why you are firing them. Well, I shouldn't I was going to say the president shouldn't know about it. Well, the president shouldn't, but Senator Obama should know because it was Senator Obama's bill that passed that law. So he violated his own law. Now, why would he fire this inspector general of AmeriCorps? He fires the inspector general of AmeriCorps, speculation is because this inspector general is looking into fraud, possibly perpetrated by one of Obama's good friends. See: http://www.glennbeck.com/content/articles/article/198/26682/ 5) Smuggled: $134 billion in U.S. bonds Case could be largest documented counterfeit crime in history Italy's financial police, Guardia Italiana di Finanza, have arrested two Japanese citizens as they attempted to smuggle $134 billion worth of U.S. bonds in the false bottom of a suitcase by train into Switzerland, Jerome Corsi's Red Alert reports.  "With the U.S. Treasury now printing the nearly $2 trillion in government bonds needed to finance the Obama administration's anticipated $1.8 trillion 2009 budget deficit, the incident has raised eyebrows around the world," Corsi wrote. See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101134 6) US cities may have to be bulldozed in order to survive Dozens of US cities may have entire neighbourhoods bulldozed as part of drastic "shrink to survive" proposals being considered by the Obama administration to tackle economic decline. The government looking at expanding a pioneering scheme in Flint, one of the poorest US cities, which involves razing entire districts and returning the land to nature. Local politicians believe the city must contract by as much as 40 per cent, concentrating the dwindling population and local services into a more viable area. See: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/finance/financetopics/financialcrisis/5516536/US-cities-may-have-to-be-bulldozed-in-order-to-survive.html 7) 'U.S. told us don't take Netanyahu seriously' Senior Palestinian official declares Obama's promises are 'what counts' JERUSALEM – The Palestinian Authority has received signs from the U.S. that it should not take seriously Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu's recent major address, according to a top PA official speaking to WND.  Nimer Hamad, senior political adviser to PA President Mahmoud Abbas, also said the PA is not concerned about Netanyahu's policies since Abbas relies on American support for key Palestinian demands.  During Netanyahu's speech Sunday, the Israeli leader called for a demilitarized Palestinian state and said Jerusalem would always be united under Jewish sovereignty.  Hamad countered: "No matter what is the position of the Israeli government and no matter what are the statements of Netanyahu, what counts is what was promised to us by Obama, which is totally the opposite [of Netanyahu's positions]." See: http://www.wnd.com/index.php?fa=PAGE.view&pageId=101215 8) America's 'Bermuda solution' angers Britain Senior aides to President Barack Obama accompanied four Uighur prisoners as they were flown from Guantanamo Bay to the British colony of Bermuda, without the UK being informed, it was revealed yesterday. See: http://www.independent.co.uk/news/world/americas/americas-bermuda-solution-angers-britain-1704147.html 9) NKorea warns of nuclear war amid rising tensions SEOUL, South Korea (AP) - North Korea's communist regime has warned of a nuclear war on the Korean peninsula while vowing to step up its atomic bomb-making program in defiance of new U.N. sanctions. See: http://apnews.myway.com/article/20090614/D98QDSOO0.html 10) Iran's Sham Election Iran's government is not a true democracy but a theocratic dictatorship that cloaks the rule of the ayatollahs with a façade of representative government. The clerical regime hand-picked the four contending candidates from a pool of 475 who initially sought to run for the presidency. The senior clerics on the Guardian Council, which vets the candidates, severely narrowed the choices to less than 1 percent of the original field of challengers. The four who were permitted to run for the presidency share a deep commitment to the extremist Islamist ideology that sparked Iran's 1979 revolution. See: http://www.heritage.org/Research/MiddleEast/wm2480.cfm