More on Legalized Theft, Tax "Loopholes", Arrogant Schakowsky, "Wiping Israel Out of Existence"

1) Congress leery about Obama's plan on tax loopholes WASHINGTON – President Barack Obama promised sternly on Monday to crack down on companies "that ship jobs overseas" and duck U.S. taxes with offshore havens. It won't be easy. Democrats have been fighting — and losing — this battle since John F. Kennedy made a similar proposal in 1961. Obama's proposal to close tax loopholes was a reliable applause line during the presidential campaign, but it got a lukewarm response Monday from Capitol Hill. …Lost revenue isn't the only problem, Obama says. He contends the current system gives companies an incentive to invest overseas rather than creating jobs in the U.S. "It's a tax code that says you should pay lower taxes if you create a job in Bangalore, India, than if you create one in Buffalo, N.Y.," Obama said Monday. How about lowering taxes HERE, then?! Then companies will want to do business here. What you are proposing is DOUBLE taxation! Taxation abroad AND at home! See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090505/ap_on_go_pr_wh/us_obama_taxes 2) Obama Makes Creditor to Chrysler an Offer it Can’t Refuse: More on Legalized Theft White House Denies Claims of Threat to Chrysler Creditor Recent comments by a lawyer representing Chrysler’s dissident debtholders alleging that Steven Rattner, the White House’s auto task force chief, “directly threatened” to wreck the reputation of the investment firm Perella Weinberg Partners if it continued to oppose the Obama administration’s reorganization plan have been picking up steam in the blogosphere. …Chrysler’s secured lenders argued that the $6.8 billion of the carmaker’s debt that they hold must be repaid before junior creditors. In a statement on Thursday, the group — then numbering about 20 firms — said that while they had proposed accepting 60 cents on the dollar as repayment, their offer was rebuffed. The administration’s offer to those debtholders was 29 cents on the dollar. Mr. Lauria said that his clients’ most recent offer to the government, made Thursday, was for a settlement of about 50 cents on the dollar, a proposal that a person briefed on the matter said involved $2.5 billion of repayment, including $500 million to minority debtholders. The government, which had given the dissident investors until 6 p.m. on Wednesday to make an acceptable offer, rejected the plan. See: http://dealbook.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/05/03/white-house-perella-weinberg-deny-claims-of-threat-to-firm/?hp And: http://blog.heritage.org/2009/05/01/chryslers-creditors-and-offers-you-cant-refuse/ 3) Worries Rise on the Size of U.S. Debt …Already, in the first six months of this fiscal year, the federal deficit is running at $956.8 billion, or nearly one seventh of gross domestic product — levels not seen since World War II, according to Wrightson ICAP, a research firm.  Debt held by the public is projected by the Congressional Budget Office to rise from 41 percent of gross domestic product in 2008 to 51 percent in 2009 and to a peak of around 54 percent in 2011 before declining again in the following years. For all of 2009, the administration probably needs to borrow about $2 trillion.  The rising tab has prompted warnings from the Treasury that the Congressionally mandated debt ceiling of $12.1 trillion will most likely be breached in the second half of this year (emphasis mine). …China has lent immense sums to the United States — about two-thirds of its central bank’s $1.95 trillion in foreign reserves is believed to be in United States securities — but it has begun to voice concerns about America’s financial health. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/business/economy/04debt.html?ref=todayspaper 4) Illinois’ Own Democrat Representative Schakowsky Comments on Government Run Healthcare: SCHAKOWSKY: And next to me was a guy from the insurance company who then argued against the public health insurance option, saying it wouldn't let private insurance compete, that a public option will put the private insurance industry out of business and -- (cheers and applause) My single pickup was, he was right. The man was right. I -- I -- here's what I told him. I said, "Excuse me, sir, the goal of health care reform is not to protect the private health insurance industry." (cheers and applause) And I am so confident in the superiority of a public health care option that I think he has every reason to be frightened. RUSH: Here is a congresswoman from Illinois, Jan Schakowsky, basically saying we are going to get rid of private insurance and the private health care industry in toto, we're going to do it. So yeah, you wait till they start micromanaging how much your doctor can get charged and what illnesses you're going to get treated for, what's covered. It's not going to be pretty. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_050409/content/01125113.guest.html 5) Iranian Army General Commander Ataollah Salehi: It Will Take Us 11 Days "To Wipe Israel Out of Existence" General Ataollah Salehi, general commander of the Iranian army: "The truth is that Israel does not have the courage to attack us. If we are subjected to any attack by Israel, I do not think we will need more than 11 days to wipe Israel out of existence." See: http://www.memri.org/bin/articles.cgi?Page=archives&Area=sd&ID=SP233809 5a) Gingrich: Obama setting up Israel confrontation Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich (R-Ga.) accused the Obama administration of setting up a confrontation with Israel, and encouraged the U.S. to more strongly back the Mideast state. "They are systematically setting up the most decisive confrontation that we've ever seen," Gingrich told the Jerusalem Post (emphasis mine).  "There's almost an eagerness to take on the Israeli government to make a point with the Arab world," the potential presidential candidate said. "The threats we are faced with are far more catastrophic than any of our leaders are willing to talk about," Gingrich said during his address Sunday before the American-Israeli Public Affairs Committee (AIPAC) conference. See: http://briefingroom.thehill.com/2009/05/04/gingrich-obama-setting-up-israel-confrontation/ 6) Strife in Pakistan Raises U.S. Doubts Over Nuclear Arms WASHINGTON — As the insurgency of the Taliban and Al Qaeda spreads in Pakistan, senior American officials say they are increasingly concerned about new vulnerabilities for Pakistan’s nuclear arsenal, including the potential for militants to snatch a weapon in transport or to insert sympathizers into laboratories or fuel-production facilities. But the United States does not know where all of Pakistan’s nuclear sites are located, and its concerns have intensified in the last two weeks since the Taliban entered Buner, a district 60 miles from the capital. The spread of the insurgency has left American officials less willing to accept blanket assurances from Pakistan that the weapons are safe.  Pakistani officials have continued to deflect American requests for more details about the location and security of the country’s nuclear sites, the officials said. See: http://www.nytimes.com/2009/05/04/world/asia/04nuke.html?_r=1&ref=todayspaper 7) New Onerous Restrictive Ordinances Targeting Churches In Dupage County, IL (my home county) …which will have the effect of eliminating small Churches.  See: http://www.illinoisfamily.org/content/img/f34357/letterfrompastorstewartruch-1.pdf 8) Montana Asserts Sovereignty Over Federal Gun Control Laws Gov. Brian Schweitzer has signed into law a bill that aims to exempt Montana-made guns from federal regulation, adding firepower to a battery of legislative efforts to assert states’ rights across the nation. “It’s a gun bill, but it’s another way of demonstrating the sovereignty of the state of Montana,” Democrat Schweitzer said. …The measure is one of many introduced by state lawmakers across the nation seeking to confront what some see as a federal overreach into state matters that will be extended with the national stimulus plan.  Along with the gun bill, Montana legislators are considering a resolution that affirms the 10th Amendment principle that the federal government only has those powers that are specifically given to it by the U.S. Constitution. “The whole goal is to awaken the people so that we can return to a properly grounded republic,” Rep. Michael More, R-Gallatin Gateway and the Montana resolution’s sponsor, said at a House committee hearing Wednesday. See: http://www.helenair.com/articles/2009/04/16/legi/top/65st_090416_statesrights.txt 9) France captures 11 suspected Somali pirates PARIS (Reuters) - France intercepted 11 suspected Somali pirates on Sunday after they mistook a French naval ship for a commercial vessel and started heading toward it in preparation for an attack, a Defense Ministry spokesman said. Oops! That could go on a show called “Somalia’s Dumbest Criminals”.  See: http://www.reuters.com/article/worldNews/idUSTRE5421QE20090503?feedType=RSS&feedName=worldNews&rpc=22&sp=true