Clinton blames talk radio for non-existent terrorism; Majority don't trust gov; Leftist thugs beat up Jindal's fundraiser

1) Obama: Fresh crisis without new financial rules WASHINGTON – The U.S. is destined to endure a new economic crisis that sticks taxpayers with the bill unless Congress tightens oversight of the financial industry, President Barack Obama said Saturday. The overhaul is the next major piece of legislation that Obama wants to sign into law this year, but solid GOP opposition in the Senate is jeopardizing that goal. "Every day we don't act, the same system that led to bailouts remains in place, with the exact same loopholes and the exact same liabilities," Obama said in his weekly radio and Internet address. "And if we don't change what led to the crisis, we'll doom ourselves to repeat it. This reminds me of Kaa, the snake in “The Jungle Book“. Just trusssst me! Look into my eyessss! I’ll sssave you from another crisis! Jusssssst give me the power. I have an idea! Let’s end bailouts! Period. The proposal also would create a council to detect threats to the financial system and set up a consumer protection agency to police people's dealings with financial institutions (emphasis mine- uh, no thank you). On Friday, Obama promised to veto the bill if it doesn't regulate the market for derivatives, which contributed to the nation's economic problems after their value plummeted during the housing crisis. But Democrats haven't agreed on how far such regulation should go, and all Senate Republicans are united against the bill. That opposition complicates Democratic efforts to get the 60 votes necessary to overcome likely GOP procedural roadblocks. Republicans contend that a provision creating a $50 billion fund for dismantling banks (emphasis mine) considered "too big to fail" would continue government bailouts of Wall Street. Obama administration officials say such a fund is unnecessary and they want Senate Democrats to remove it. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100417/ap_on_bi_ge/us_obama_financial_reform 1a) Teachable Moment: Market Drops on SEC Filing vs. Goldman Sachs RUSH: There's a piece of news out there that's a very teachable moment and I want to start with this. The stock market is down about 148 points in the last hour. Now, the reason the market is down is because the Securities and Exchange Commission which is a part of the regime -- this is the teachable moment -- the SEC has filed civil charges against Goldman Sachs for essentially profiting on the subprime mortgage crisis knowing full well that the housing market was gonna bubble up and crunch and they were playing both sides, profiting on both sides of it. The suit from the SEC basically shows that Goldman Sachs and others knew that the housing market was gonna crash, they kept selling these mortgage-backed securities on the one hand and then they bet against them on the other hand. They were going short. This was not the result of any unfettered capitalism, folks. This was not unfettered capitalism. This crash is the result of Barney Frank, Chris Dodd, Franklin Raines, Jamie Gorelick and all these other liberals and their elitist buddies on Wall Street who knew what was going on in the subprime mortgage crisis, gaming the system to enrich themselves. From Clinton, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd on, they created an unsustainable mortgage situation and then other liberals enriched themselves by betting against it at Goldman Sachs, and that's what this suit is all about. Now, you might say why today? Because there's a story out there that Goldman Sachs is fully in support of the financial regulatory reform bill. My friends, here's the teachable moment. Obama wants this story out there. He wants Wall Street to be thought of as a bunch of thieves, as a bunch of creeps, as a bunch of elitists, so he can get his financial regulatory reform bill passed, and, lo and behold, what happens, the SEC, an arm of the regime, launches a civil suit against Goldman Sachs. The other teachable moment of this is that it's the government always screwing things up. This is the liberals in government working with the liberals at Goldman Sachs to profit from all this and then enrich themselves and what do they do? They blame the free market for it. They end up blaming capitalism for this. This was an inside hit job all the way. And so now Goldman is going to have to take a little pain here and be the public face of evil, mean, greedy Wall Street so that Obama can get some energy behind his financial regulatory reform bill which he desperately wants. So that's the teachable moment today. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041610/content/01125107.guest.html 2) Bill Clinton Links Talk Radio, Tea Parties to Non-Existent Terrorism RUSH: McVeigh was motivated and upset by the Waco invasion of the Branch Davidian compound. Attorney General Reno ordered tanks to be used against American citizens. McVeigh was not inspired by rhetoric. He was angered by action taken by the Clinton administration. …RUSH: That was Bill Clinton, blaming me for the Oklahoma City bombing on April 19th, 1995. Yesterday we had the tea parties, and the Drive-By Media (I'm sure to its great chagrin) is filled with stories about how festive and how peaceful and how unthreatening all of the tea parties were. The effort to infiltrate these tea parties fizzled. They have stories on that that they probably do not like having to report. And, ladies and gentlemen, it's very clear that these citizen uprisings -- genuine grassroots citizen's uprisings -- are far more powerful than an attempt to drum up fake opposition to them from the White House. Yet, Bill Clinton is back in the game, expanding that threat via this sound bite. CLINTON 2010: There was this rising movement in the early nineties that was basically not just a carefully orchestrated plot by people of extreme right-wing views but one that fell into fertile soil because there were so many people for whom the world no longer made sense. They wanted a simple, clear explanation of what was an inherently complex, mixed picture full of challenges that required not only changes in public policy, but personnel conduct and imagination about the world we were living in. So demonizing the government and the people that work for it sort of fit that -- and there were a lot of people who were in the business back then of saying that the biggest threat to our liberty and the cause of our economic problems was the federal government itself. RUSH: So there you have it: Bill Clinton once again trying to rebirth his empty threat from 1995. He starts out tracing the plot that started in the eighties to "demonize government." I have a question. We have two more sound bites of the president here specifying right-wing talk radio, but I have a question: How come we're supposed to draw (on the basis of no evidence), a connection between conservatism and terrorism, conservative ideology and terrorism? Where is that connection? Yet we are told we must reject, despite tons of evidence, the connection between Islamist ideology and terrorism. So we can't call Islamist fundamentalists "terrorists." We can't even use the word. But we can have ex-presidents and current presidents running around trying to associate conservatives with nonexistent terrorism at peaceful tea parties. Somebody needs to explain this to me. See: http://www.rushlimbaugh.com/home/daily/site_041610/content/01125108.guest.html 3) Republicans blast Obama's appellate court choice WASHINGTON – Senate Republicans fiercely criticized President Barack Obama's choice for a seat on a San Francisco-based federal appellate court Friday, in an intensifying test of his ability to install an unabashed liberal. Nominee Goodwin Liu (Loo) tried to deflect the criticism by assuring lawmakers that his personal views would "never have a role" in his opinions if confirmed to a seat on the 9th U.S. Circuit Court of Appeals. Republicans threw back at Liu his sharp criticism of two Supreme Court justices, Chief Justice John Roberts and Samuel Alito, when they were nominees. GOP senators told Liu he had no judicial experience, and said they worried he would give the government sweeping powers over Americans' lives. …Both parties in the past have tried — and sometimes did — block court nominees of the other party. Obama is slowly remaking federal appeals and lower district courts, following eight years of conservative judges picked by former President George W. Bush. He now will have a second Supreme Court pick to replace retiring Justice John Paul Stevens. Depending on Obama's pick, the Liu nomination could serve as a template for a partisan fight likely to follow over the high court nominee. …The professor and associate dean at the University of California, Berkeley, has written extensively about his liberal views on welfare and applying the Constitution (translation, CHANGING the Constitution) to changing needs of society. …Liu is nominated for the 9th Circuit, which hears appeals from lower courts in California, Arizona, Nevada, Oregon, Washington, Alaska, Idaho, Hawaii and Montana. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100416/ap_on_go_co/us_obama_judges 4) Poll: Majority lacks trust in government Nearly 80 percent of Americans say they can't and they have little faith that the massive federal bureaucracy can solve the nation's ills, according to a survey from the Pew Research Center that shows public confidence in the federal government at one of the lowest points in a half-century. The poll released Sunday illustrates the ominous situation facing President Barack Obama and the Democratic Party as they struggle to maintain their comfortable congressional majorities in this fall's elections. Midterm prospects are typically tough for the party in power. Add a toxic environment like this and lots of incumbent Democrats could be out of work. The survey found that just 22 percent of those questioned say they can trust Washington almost always or most of the time and just 19 percent say they are basically content with it. Nearly half say the government negatively effects their daily lives, a sentiment that's grown over the past dozen years. This anti-government feeling has driven the tea party movement, reflected in fierce protests this past week. "The government's been lying to people for years. Politicians make promises to get elected, and when they get elected, they don't follow through," says Cindy Wanto, 57, a registered Democrat from Nemacolin, Pa., who joined several thousand for a rally in Washington on April 15 — the tax filing deadline. "There's too much government in my business. It was a problem before Obama, but he's certainly not helping fix it." Hello? Did you expect to get LESS government by electing Obama? See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100419/ap_on_go_ot/us_government_distrust 5) Small Business Vs. Big Government While the stock market has been buoyant over the last several weeks, small businesses, the heart of U.S. job creation, remain extremely gloomy. April's survey of the National Federation of Independent Businesses shows deep pessimism among small-business owners with the "Optimism Index" showing readings under 90 for the 18th consecutive month. The NFIB calls this trend "unprecedented in survey history" and "not the picture of an economic expansion." The roots of this pessimism lie in slow sales, uncertain access to credit, uncertainty about the economy and the impact of increasing government regulations and spending, particularly with respect to health care and finance. The survey is an important leading indicator for economic recovery. At the bottom of the 1982 recession, a net 47% of small businesses indicated they planned to hire more people, and soon after the economy turned sharply up. Currently, a net negative 8% of businesses plan to increase hiring, suggesting the economy is not yet out of the woods despite the run-up in the stock market. …The Patient Protection and Affordable Care Act creates roughly 100 new Washington bureaucracies that in turn will write the roughly 100,000 new regulations that the laws contemplate. Think of an instant replay of the IRS, its code and all its regulations, but happening in 100 days instead of 100 years. It's enough to make a small businessman's brain explode. The crumbs thrown to small business in the form of "tax credits," according to the NFIB, are complex, and even if you do figure them out, they evaporate after two years. This is part of why small business, which is responsible for 50% of hiring in the private sector, is not anticipating doing much hiring or capital spending soon. They also have to worry about changes to the finance laws that may further restrict their access to credit products, and rules increasing the likelihood of unionization at their firms. We used to have a roughly trillion-dollar drag on the economy from the regulatory burden. It feels like it is doubling. Big companies can handle it. It creates barriers to entry and, besides, the U.S. is just another market for many. It's the small-business owner, starved for credit, watching slow sales, fast government and growing regulatory drag that is still in trouble. For the small-business owner, Washington has become the arsonist pouring gasoline on the fire he is trying to put out. Investors are urged to still be cautious before listening to the "All Clear" alerts that abound today. See: http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://www.investors.com/NewsAndAnalysis/ArticlePrint.aspx?id=530389 6) Amnesty poison pill Vast health bill for new legals On Saturday, Senate Major ity Leader Harry Reid told a Las Vegas audience: "We are going to pass comprehensive immigration reform" this year -- using the "comprehensive" buzzword that everyone knows means amnesty for the 10.8 million or more illegal aliens now in the country. But that amnesty means even more than it used to -- because Democrats this year broke with long-standing precedent to ensure that, if legalized, these aliens would immediately qualify for ObamaCare's health-insurance subsidies. Reid's remarks were just the latest in a series of pledges from Democratic leaders in Congress, as well as from President Obama, that they'll really try to pass an amnesty bill this year -- no matter how controversial. Yet the controversy should be worse than ever -- thanks to a disturbing change buried deep in the 2,400-page ObamaCare legislation: the effective end of the "public charge" doctrine. This doctrine is nearly as old as US immigration law itself. It is the rule that no alien can be allowed into the United States if he is going to become a burden on the US taxpayer upon entry -- a public charge. In 1996, Congress added teeth to the doctrine by imposing a five-year bar on legal aliens receiving federal means-tested public benefits. In other words, no feeding at the public trough until you've been supporting yourself for five years. But now Democrats have eliminated the five-year bar with respect to the new health-care benefits. The new law's authors plainly realized this wouldn't be popular. While the House health-care bill stated quite plainly that the five-year bar did not apply, the Senate version that became law did it via a torturous process that involved defining the health-care subsidy as a "tax credit" (though it's available even to people who don't pay taxes) and declaring that a lawfully present alien who's not eligible for Medicaid (because of the five-year bar) is eligible for a health-care "tax credit." Why sneak such a provision into the law, when it goes against the sound economics of the public-charge doctrine and further burdens American taxpayers? Perhaps to create a long-term constituency for ObamaCare. Barely 40 percent of the American public favors the new law. Elections this fall and in 2012 will likely slash support for it in Washington; without a constituency to fight for it, it could be doomed. And the best way to build a constituency is to extend its benefits to as many people as possible. By setting aside the public-charge doctrine and allowing newly legalized aliens to become eligible for ObamaCare immediately, the amnesty would create 10.8 million new ObamaCare constituents, dependent upon Uncle Sam for free health care. Go to http://www.sharronangle.com and help GET RID OF REID. See: http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/opedcolumnists/amnesty_poison_pill_mkg0NlYeAZDCLWtwJhHnMJ 7) Brutal attack (by leftist thugs) on Republican fundraiser and boyfriend may have been politically motivated (UPDATED) Last Friday night, Allee Bautsch, the chief fundraiser for Louisiana's Republican Gov. Bobby Jindal, was violently assaulted, along with her boyfriend, outside of a famed New Orleans restaurant. Reports on the incident remain murky, but a source close to Bautsch tells Yahoo! News that Bautch believes they were politically motivated and has been hospitalized for days to treat her injuries. The incident took place outside the high-end French Quarter eatery Brennan's, where the Louisiana Republican Party was holding a fundraiser to coincide with the Southern Republican Leadership Conference happening in New Orleans that weekend. According to a bulletin put out by the New Orleans Police Department, the fight began around 10:45 p.m., when a group of three to five men made "derogatory comments" of an undisclosed nature to Bautsch about her boyfriend, Joe Brown. When Brown "turned toward" the men making the remarks, he was hit by at least one of them. The report notes that Bautsch "fell to the ground and screamed" and suffered a broken leg when she "attempted to break up the altercation." …Yahoo! News spoke to a friend of Allee Bautsch who's been in communication with her since the attack. The friend, who declined to be named because the attackers are still at large, described the group who descended on Bautsch and Brown as "some weird Bobby Jindal protesters" there in opposition to the state's governor. The friend confirmed the earlier reports that Bautsch "got caught in the middle" of the altercation as she tried to break it up. Bautsch's friend also reported that she's in "loads of pain" with "rods in her leg and ankle," but that she was also "released yesterday from the hospital and is resting at her home in Baton Rouge." While details of the incident are still being fleshed out, blogger Pat Dollard claims that NOPD Public Information Officer Bob Young told him the assault "was of a political nature," and then back-tracked. Though confirming that the question of political motivation is being examined, Young denies confirming that they were and tells Poltico's Ben Smith that Dollard's account is "completely incorrect." However, eyewitnesses to the incident have variably described the assailants as appearing to be left-wing activists or anarchists. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ynews/20100416/ts_ynews/ynews_ts1642 8) Federal judge rules Day of Prayer unconstitutional MADISON, Wis. – A federal judge in Wisconsin ruled the National Day of Prayer unconstitutional Thursday, saying the government cannot call for religious action. Congress established the day in 1952 and in 1988 set the first Thursday in May as the day for presidents to issue proclamations asking Americans to pray. The Freedom From Religion Foundation, a Madison-based group of atheists and agnostics, filed a lawsuit against the federal government in 2008 arguing the day violated the separation of church and state. The Constitution guarantees freedom OF religion, not freedom FROM religion. Don’t like it? Then get out of America. The National Day of Prayer in NO WAY violates what the founders intended. Here's an illustrative quote from one of the Founding Fathers: "We have no government armed in power capable of contending in human passions unbridled by morality and religion. Our constitution was made only for a moral and religious people. It is wholly inadequate for the government of any other." - John Adams President Barack Obama's administration has countered that the statute simply acknowledges the role of religion in the United States. Obama issued a proclamation last year but did not hold public events with religious leaders as former President George W. Bush had done. …"It is unfortunate that this court failed to understand that a day set aside for prayer for the country represents a time-honored tradition that embraces the First Amendment, not violates it," ACLJ Chief Counsel Jay Sekulow said in a statement. See: http://www.marklevinshow.com/goout.asp?u=http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100415/ap_on_re_us/us_day_of_prayer_2/ 9) Iran nuclear conference urges Israel to join NPT TEHRAN, Iran – An Iranian-hosted international disarmament conference concluded Sunday with a demand that Israel join the Nuclear Non-Proliferation Treaty to assure a nuclear weapons-free Middle East. The two-day conference followed closely behind a 47-nation nuclear security conference hosted by President Barack Obama in Washington last week, which excluded Iran and nuclear-armed North Korea. Washington and its allies suspect Iran's nuclear program is geared toward producing weapons, which Tehran denies. As the conference was ending Sunday, Iran staged an annual military parade where it displayed missiles capable of carrying nuclear warheads. Wow. That is so hypocritical I don’t even know where to begin. The forum, which Iran said was attended by representatives of 60 countries, gave Tehran a platform for challenging Washington's assertion that it wants to see a world without nuclear weapons and for defending its own nuclear program. It criticized what it called a double-standard by some nuclear powers that urge disarmament while ignoring the nuclear arsenal Israel is widely believed to possess. News flash here. There is a vast difference between Israel, a peace-loving democracy, having nuclear weapons, and Iran, who believes they must wage global jihad to usher in the Apocalypse and are NOT deterred by mutually assured destruction. See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100418/ap_on_re_mi_ea/ml_iran 10) EU says half of normal flights may run Monday AMSTERDAM – European air traffic could return to about 50 percent of normal levels Monday if weather forecasts confirm that skies over half the continent are emptying of the volcanic ash that has thrown global travel into chaos, the European Union said. The prospects for a return to normal air travel remained far from clear, however. Several major airlines safely tested the skies with weekend flights that did not carry passengers. Germany temporarily loosened some airspace restrictions before the EU announcement Sunday evening, allowing limited operations from some of its largest airports before closing them again Sunday evening. Other countries enforced closures on their national airspace through late Sunday, Monday or even Tuesday as meteorologists warned that the airborne ash was still unpredictable and potentially dangerous. WOW! All that pollution caused by NATURE!! I wonder how much global warming all that ash will cause! See: http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20100418/ap_on_bi_ge/eu_iceland_volcano