Obama Determining YOUR salary, Will He Fire Bank CEOs next?, Climate Bill, North Korea, Pakistan

“It only stands to reason that where there's sacrifice, there's someone collecting the sacrificial offerings. Where there's service, there is someone being served. The man who speaks to you of sacrifice is speaking of slaves and masters, and intends to be the master.” Ayn Rand “Government ‘help’ to business is just as disastrous as government persecution...the only way a government can be of service to national prosperity is by keeping its hands off.” Ayn Rand 1) Beyond AIG: A bill to let Big Government set your salary It was nearly two weeks ago that the House of Representatives, acting in a near-frenzy after the disclosure of bonuses paid to executives of AIG, passed a bill that would impose a 90 percent retroactive tax on those bonuses. Despite the overwhelming 328-93 vote, support for the measure began to collapse almost immediately. Within days, the Obama White House backed away from it, as did the Senate Democratic leadership. The bill stalled, and the populist storm that spawned it seemed to pass.  But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies. See: http://www.washingtonexaminer.com/politics/Beyond-AIG-A-Bill-to-let-Big-Government-Set-Your-Salary-42158597.html 2) Wall Street Bets Obama Will Fire Bank CEOs Next Says CNBC Reporter After General Motors (NYSE:GM) Chairman and CEO Rick Wagoner was forced out by President Barack Obama, Wall Street is betting bank CEO firings will be the next shoe to drop.  CNBC’s New York Stock Exchange floor reporter Bob Pisani told viewers of CNBC’s March 30 “Street Signs” the market’s actions, with the Dow Jones Industrial Average (DJIA) dropping as much as 300 points, are reflect, in part,that the government is going to force bank CEOs out as they did with Wagoner. See: http://www.businessandmedia.org/articles/2009/20090330160548.aspx 3) Contracts Now Seen as Being Rewritable Contracts everywhere are under assault. The depth of the recession and the use of taxpayer dollars to bail out companies have made it politically acceptable for overseers to tinker with employment agreements.  …Across the country, Vallejo, Calif., just got permission in bankruptcy court to tear up its contracts with firefighters and other workers. In Stockton, the city manager is studying whether to follow Vallejo’s lead. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/31/business/economy/31contracts.html?ref=todayspaper 4) Democrats Unveil Climate Bill The Waxman-Markey bill, the American Clean Energy and Security Act, emerges at a time when many Americans, and their representatives in Congress, are wary of wide-ranging environmental legislation that could raise energy costs and potentially cripple industry. The bill, a version of a so-called cap-and-trade plan, also comes as the Environmental Protection Agency is about to exert regulatory authority over heat-trapping gases under the Clean Air Act. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/04/01/us/politics/01energycnd.html?_r=1&hp 5) Is There a War on the Term 'War on Terror' "I haven't gotten any directive about using it or not using it. It's just not being used," said Clinton during a briefing with reporters aboard her plane to the Hague to attend an international conference on Afghanistan.   "The administration has stopped using the phrase and I think that speaks for itself," she said at a different point during her trip. "Obviously." …The story began after the Washington Post's Al Kamen obtained an e-mail from an official in the Office of Security Review, Dave Reidel, saying that, "This Administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' (GWOT). Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' " See: http://blogs.abcnews.com/politicalpunch/2009/03/is-there-a-war.html 6) Pakistani Taliban threatens attack on White House ISLAMABAD – Pakistan's Taliban chief claimed responsibility Tuesday for a deadly assault on a police academy, saying he wanted to retaliate for U.S. missile attacks on the militant bases on the border with Afghanistan. Baitullah Mehsud, who has a $5 million bounty on his head from the United States, also vowed to "amaze everyone in the world" with an attack on Washington or even the White House. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_as/as_pakistan 7) North Korea Threatens War Against Japan Over Missile (Update4) March 31 (Bloomberg) -- North Korea’s government vowed to wage war against Japan if Japanese defense forces try to shoot down a missile that the communist nation says will carry a communications satellite. See: http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?pid=20601101&sid=aoXwM34Au.xI&refer=japan 8) New Israeli PM says 'extremist Islam' trying to destroy his country "In order for there to be peace, our Palestinian allies and partners also have to fight terrorism," he said. "They must bring up their children in the spirit of tolerance and peace. In the last two decades, six heads of government in Israel have failed to achieve a peace settlement, but they were not at fault. I say to the leaders of the Palestinian Authority: If you really want peace, then peace can be achieved. "We don't want to control another people," Netanyahu said of Israel's military control of Palestinian territory, which dates to the 1967 Arab-Israeli war. "We don't want to control the Palestinians. In a final a settlement, the Palestinians will have all the rights to rule themselves except those which threaten Israel's ability to protect itself." See: http://www.cnn.com/2009/WORLD/meast/03/31/israel.new.prime.minister/ And: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090401/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_israel_politics 9) Insurgent Threat Shifts in Pakistan KABUL, March 30 -- The brazen occupation of a Pakistani police academy Monday by heavily armed gunmen near the eastern mega-city of Lahore was the latest indication that Islamist terrorism, once confined to Pakistan's northwest tribal belt, now threatens political stability nationwide. See: http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/03/30/AR2009033000098.html