We Needed Leadership

Reposted by request from downstairs:
hillstheone 02.08.09 at 1:41 am
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HI, MURPHY:
~ Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Happy Birthday!!! ~

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2ZD1S1aMJ_I&feature=related

;D ;D ;D

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For Murphy – A VERY STRONG WOMAN

“For Strong Women”by Marge Piercy, 1936

A strong woman is a woman who is straining
A strong woman is a woman standing on tiptoe and lifting a barbell while trying to sing “Boris Godunov.”

A strong woman is a woman at work cleaning out the cesspool of the ages,and while she shovels, she talks about how she doesn’t mind crying, it opens the ducts of the eyes, and develops the stomach muscles, and she goes on shoveling with tears in her nose.

A strong woman is a woman in whose heada voice is repeating, I told you so,ugly, bad girl, bitch, nag, shrill, witch,ballbuster, nobody will ever love you back,why aren’t you feminine, why aren’tyou soft, why aren’t you quiet, why aren’t you dead?

A strong woman is a woman determined to do something others are determined not be done. She is pushing up on the bottom of a lead coffin lid. She is trying to raise a manhole cover with her head, she is trying to butt her way through a steel wall.Her head hurts. People waiting for the hole to be made say, hurry, you’re so strong. A strong woman is a woman bleeding inside.

A strong woman is a woman making herself strong every morning while her teeth loosen and her back throbs. Every baby,a tooth, midwives used to say, and now every battle a scar.

A strong woman is a mass of scar tissue that aches when it rains and wounds that bleed when you bump them and memories that get up in the night and pace in boots to and fro.

A strong woman is a woman who craves love like oxygen or she turns blue choking.A strong woman is a woman who loves strongly and weeps strongly and is strongly terrified and has strong needs. A strong woman is strongin words, in action, in connection, in feeling;she is not strong as a stone but as a wolf suckling her young.

Strength is not in her, but she enacts it as the wind fills a sail.What comforts her is others loving her equally for the strength and for the weakness from which it issues, lightning from a cloud. Lightning stuns. In rain, the clouds disperse. Only water of connection remains,flowing through us.

Strong is what we make each other.

Until we are all strong together, a strong woman is a woman strongly afraid.

Murphy
You have a Birthday message downstairs..don’t know how to bring it up..still on blog 101..for real..hope you read it.
Enjoy your day, and the other 364..looks like we are going to need you more than ever..for some real good direction..You are Our leadership..Not That One!!

INTERESTING ARTICLE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090208/pl_nm/us_obama_security

I think the 20s are meant for exploring…
Late 20s (Saturn Returns, a time for re-evaluation and corrections. When doctors become bakers, and homemakers become lawyers)…
30s, setting your course(s).
40s, Fruition! Reaping the rewards of the 20s and 30s, recognizing the value and wisdom of the years that carried you into your true power. And…
IT. ONLY. GETS. BETTER. FROM. HERE. ON. OUT!!!!
Congratulations! You’ve arrived!

DANCES HOW ARE YOU? LOL

DancesWithPumas 02.08.09 at 11:47 am

WHY ARE WE YELLING???????

—

I DON’T KNOW I THOUGHT IT WAS THE NEW FAD AND DIDN’T WANT TO BE LEFT OUT

lol ok i’ll be serious now

bmw60 02.08.09 at 11:34 am

INTERESTING ARTICLE

http://news.yahoo.com/s/nm/20090208/pl_nm/us_obama_security

———————————
yup very interesting indeed, I feel the “change” coming and it ain’t good!
I am sure olog is going to jam a lot of avenues for Hillary Clinton down the road. Can you see it coming?

Thanks Dances#6..for getting me up stairs..
#9 perfect..I am a Cancer..always us lots of words..one of those expression types..

TexasTigress 02.08.09 at 11:20 am
A Strong Woman – that piece was right on target. I don’t recognize the author, but I’d love to know how she gained her insight in the 1930’s.

Happy 40th birthday Murphy. I got divorced and started a new careet at age 40. Very freeing but very stressful, too. I survived despite opposition from my sons and friends. It’s a an age to see past the untruths women are fed when they are young or to make yourself even stronger than you already are.

14
bqueen 02.08.09 at 11:50 am

We needed leadership,
We were offered leadership:

http://www.teamsarah.org/video/video/show?id=2330231%3AVideo%3A699952

(hope the link works!)

———————— Nope>>>
Gee I’d take Sarah Palin any day instead of the olgo admin…they suck worse than the Republicans. At least we know the shit the repubs have to flush out!

#17 ..meant **use**, can spell sometimes, it’s just hard when TexasT#3 managed to turn on the tears already with her posting..

here Dances, have a tissue….here have a couple….

Dances . . .
Started to watch it, had to shut it off! So sad.

Trish,

Calling Obama “Flush”. LOL that is perfect.

President Flush Obama..and we are the Flushers.

M. Etheridge makes me want to puke, so I just couldn’t bring myself to watch the video beyond the first 5 seconds.

Darn all of you original pumas!
Why couldn’t I just shut the damn thing off !????
Dances , pass the damn kleenex .
sheesh .
I want a do over .

TrishfromCanada

..please let us know how the O’s trip..really goes!
Read last night he is cutting short..only 6 hrs now..no state dinner or any of that normal prez stuff..boy that’s real class..snub Canada..or are they the Smart ones..know he’s all BS, and why waste our time!!
We want real News..not the normal media cheerleading coverup..
Trish our #1 canadan reporter..sorry pay sucks..but we do Trust you..does that count?

Wonderful, happy, joyous Birthday wishes for You, Murphy. And many, many more. I hope when you are turning 90 or more, you will remember us and all that we accomplished the year you turned 40! Many wishes for a wonderful day.

I thought Murphy is 39 for a few more days??

Rancho…we probably won’t…even if we live to an über-ripe old age!!

But if Sarah runs, I’m gonna be right there backin’ her!!

what coulda been. No, actually, what shoulda,/i> been.

Hello to goofsmom and airforcehusker…Both of you spoke to me yesterday and I did not reply, so a big “hello” to you both. and always ‘hello’ to all Pumas.

OT woman-lynching
Daily News:

“Three found dead in murder-suicide in posh pad on upper West Side”

“A jealous lover shot and killed an upper West Side woman as she cooked dinner for another boyfriend inside her pricey co-op apartment, then turned the gun on himself, police sources said Saturday.”
http://www.nydailynews.com/news/2009/02/08/2009-02-08_untitled__2triple08m-1.html

@ #47
Dances has story posted up in woman-lynching forum. (sorry to repeat)

Murphy . . Women’s History month? Alice Paul medal? What cha think?

Oops! My post # 48 above
”women can wait for lift to catch up with art, ”
should read
“women can wait for LIFE to catch up with art.”

Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday to you,
Happy birthday dear Murphy,
Happy birthday to youuuuu!

http://www.maylin.net/Fireworks.html (in celebration- click mouse randomly
in this webpage)

… postcards…

Rancho 02.08.09 at 12:41 pm

Murphy . . Women’s History month? Alice Paul medal? What cha think?

============
Hey! I like the idea of Pumas crafting a medal! We (actually , Dances or some other of our gifted Pumas!) (doncha like the way I volunteer others???) could come up with a logo for Pumas and we could have our Murphy (and others, if, or as, needed) present it to a noteworthy person of our choice!

If Eleanor Clift isn’t a PUMA, she sure should be!

Anyone else see the article or hear about her. (Was it previously posted, and I missed it?) Here’s a journalist who deserves a PUMA PRAISE AWARD for recognizing leadership!!

————————————–
Eleanor Clift is an ass kissing OLOGO LOVER!

Murphy,

Happy Birthday from the meanest lil’ puma ever! May this year be your best year ever…

And to all PUMAS everywhere remember this thought, that just to have dared to fight was miraculous, but to actually have fought–and continue to fight–well that is a real live miracle. Hillary is all of us, but most of all she is that woman beaten down, penniless, without a friend or hope in the world, who stands up, lets the door slam behind her, and walks away and with each step she is proving that miracles do happen. Hillary is that woman and she is all women and once we realize that and band together her victory will be our victory and with that a new world will be here. A world where a woman president is the norm, where a person like Mr. Obama is in jail, and every child–even the girl children–can not only dream but realize their dreams. This is what we owe her and what we owe ourselves. Hillary is our battle cry, PUMA is our name….onward to victory!!!

You’re right jenniforhillary. and the war is won one battle at a time! We may get weary, we may get tired, but We must keep on and on until we win the war!

HP
don’t make me come over there! lol
invalid, ‘nother tissue, pleasethankyou

Sunday, February 8, 2009 ( SO THE 3 TRAITERS HAVE BEEN TRICKED INTO SIGNING THE PORK.) WE NEED TO LET THEM KNOW WHAT THEY ARE DOING.
Democrat Sen. Claire McCaskill — We’ll Spend All The Money Later Anyway Regardless of Senate Compromise
Democratic Senator Claire McCaskill from Missouri appeared on NBC’s Face The Nation this morning. In discussing the “compromise” Senate “stimulus” bill, which cuts about $100 billion in government spending as compared to the House bill, McCaskill justified the cuts by stating that the spending cuts could be added back later in an “omnibus” spending authorization. (Transcript to follow when available.)

So McCaskill, at least, recognizes that the “compromise” is not a real compromise. The spending “cuts” which induced Republican Senators Susan Collins, Olympia Snowe, and Arlen Spector to support the “compromise” Senate bill are a ruse. There has been no agreement by Democrats not to spend the money, only not to spend it in the “stimulus” bill.

I guess the Collins-Snowe-Spector group didn’t pin down the definition of “cut.”
————————————————————–
UPDATE No. 1 – Here’s what McCaskill said: “I think some of the money that we cut in the compromise to get the votes that we have was in fact spending that more appropriately should go in an appropriations bill…. And by the way, our bill is 90% the same as the House. The 10% difference was some of the cuts that we made in some of the things that could be put in an omnibus appropriations bill or an appropriation bill.” (My transcription; official transcript to follow when available.)

Here’s the video. You have to listen to several minutes of Barney Frank hysteria and re-writes of history to get to McCaskill’s comments:

Visit msnbc.com for Breaking News, World News, and News about the Economy

Yes Dances, right here….there you go….You can cry all you want, but you know HP Boston is right….

Headclunker…I just printed that and I am going to wear it pinned on my chest all day (I go to as many Starbucks as possible when I am feeling like doing some performance art as I call it)..

Sunshinelover–every day we wake up smiling and ready to fight we have already won–and they know it.

And we have leadership, yes we do, we have Murphy and Dances and Mama and Trish and AsianforHillary and EVERY SINGLE PUMA who has more true leadership in her/his pinkie than these fucking politicians have–if we put them all together in a juicer and squeezed it out of them–put together.

I think it is time for Hillary to say, move over buddy, I think it is Hillary-time (i.e. time to get to work). And, for the record, I am LOVING Mr. Obama’s tanking, stinking, and failing because with each smashing bomb of an act or non-act it reminds people of who they could have had. Remember the famous “I could have had a V-8″ commercial, well, I wish PUMA had enough money to do one with the phrase “I could have had Hillary.”

It is good to be back–work got so crazy for 10 days I had only bits and pieces of PUMA. One thing is for sure–most people in Houston are hating BO. Big time. Even people who voted for him think he is a big failure…..

Pass this on to everyone you might think will be interested. As I’ve said before, buckle up, we’re in for a bumpy ride. Ge to know your constitution. First: SB 2433 Don’t know if any of you looked at H.R. 45, if not, you should. If you did and thought it was bad, take a look at Senate Bill S.2433 (Global Poverty Act)…it appears that while we were being distracted by all the bail outs etc. there’s a lot of really dangerous legislation being quietly moved along without a lot of fanfare tha t would put our nation under the control of the U.N. Check out the establishment of the U.N. International Criminal Court, and the standing U.N. Army!! The provisions listed under this legislation (note that it has already passed in the House) would supersede our own Constitution and Bill Of Rights!!! I really don’t care to have the U.N. telling me how to run my life or any more of my money going to support those thieves and frauds… If you had heard and dismissed talk and theories about “New World Order”, then maybe we should re-visit that talk. It seems that without any of the hype and hoopla that surrounds any minor actions being foisted upon us, this one has quietly been sl ipped in under the radar. I’ll forward a piece I recently received about “New World Order” for your perusal later. Seems directly connected to S.2433 Global Poverty Act. Makes no difference whether you are conservative or liberal, both are involved. As the note below suggests, look up the bill and read for yourself, as well as H.R. 45 and not dismiss it out of hand without reading it. Just thought you might be interested, if not, just delete… And second: Senate Bill 2433….It’s Already Started ; According to David Bossie, President of the group ‘Citizens United for American Sovereignty based out of Merrifield, Virginia , web site:http://www.citizensunited.org/ The above mentioned Senate Bill (S. 2433) is a piece of legislation in the works that all Americans need to know about…and know now! This Bill, spon sored by none other than our “President ” former Sen. Barrack Obama, with the backing of now V/P Joe Biden on the Foreign Relations Committee, and liberal democrats in Congress, is nothing short of a massive giveaway of American wealth around the world, and a betrayal of the public trust, because, if passed, this bill would give over many aspects of our sovereignty to the United Nations. The noble sounding name of this bill, “The Global Poverty Act” is actually a Global Tax, payable to the United Nations, that will be required of all American taxpayers. If passed in the20Senate, the House has already passed it, this bill would require the U.S. to increase our foreign aid by $65 BILLION per year, or $845 BILLION over the next 13 years! That’s on top of the billions of dollars in foreign aid that we already pay out! In addition to the economic burdens this potential law would place on our precarious economy, the bill, if passed in the Senate, would also endanger our constitutionally protected rights and freedoms by obligating us=2 0to meet certain United Nations mandates. According to Senator Obama, we should establish these United Nations’ goals as benchmarks for U. S. spending. What are they? The creation of a U.N. International Criminal Court having power to try and convict American citizens and soldiers without any protection from the U.S. Constitution. A standing United Nations Army forcing U.S. soldiers to serve under U.N. command. A Gun Ban on all small arms and light weapons…which would repeal our Second Amendment right to bear arms. &nbs p; The ratification of the “Kyoto” global warming treaty and numerous other anti-American measures. Recently, the Senate Subcommittee on Foreign Relations (where Sen. Joe Biden was) approved this plan by a voice vote without any discussion! Why all the secrecy? If Senators Obama and Biden are so proud of this legislation, then why don’t they bring it out into the light of day and let the American people have a look at it instead of hiding it behind closed doors and sneaking it t hrough Congress for late night votes? It may be only a matter of time before this dangerous legislation reaches a floor vote in the full body of the Senate. 0A Please write or call, email your representatives, the White House, the media, or anyone you think w ill listen, and express your opinions regarding this Global Tax giveaway and betrayal of the American people at a time when our nation and our people are already heavily burdened with the threats of our freedom and economic prosperity.
Please send this email to as many folks out there on your networks as you can ASAP! Find out more, just do a search for Senate Bill 2433.

bmw:

Ok correct me if I’m wrong but when did the UN start taking over countries, my understanding is the UN looks after humanitarian aid and has no legislative or governing rights.

LOL>>>>>>>LOL>>>>>>>LOL

just finding the right definition:

http://www.foxnews.com/politics/2009/02/07/obamas-pursuit-bipartisanship-raises-question-definition/

SAW THIS… DON’T LIVE CLOSE ENOUGH, BUT MAYBE YOU DO:

Attn FReepers: Is anyone ready to join me at the US Senate in DC on Monday?
February 7, 2009 | Jim Robinson

Posted on Saturday, February 07, 2009 3:23:07 PM by Jim Robinson

Edited on Sunday, February 08, 2009 5:48:05 AM by Jim Robinson. [history]

MEET UP 10 A.M. MONDAY AT SPECTER’S OFFICE 711 HART SENATE OFFICE BUILDING

Just checked the airlines. Looks like we can get reasonably priced tickets to DC. Will arrive Sunday night. Available to protest Porkulus Monday and Tuesday and return to Fresno as a free man on Wednesday.

Will anyone join me?

Doug Giles’ Cure for The Obama Hangover
TownHall ^ | February 8, 2009 | Doug Giles

Posted on Sunday, February 08, 2009 11:05:06 AM by dbz77
The Obama Hangover is the pain a moderate Obama backer is now feeling after having been promised the moon and realizing they have instead . . . been mooned. It’s got to be humiliating watching your Mr. Hope & Change fumble these first few weeks like a leprous teen would his girlfriend’s bra.
You must be feelin’ like my buddy who recently got married to his eHarmony “soul mate” who turned out to have no soul nor the desire to mate.

It’s a similar vibe this dude we call “Awood” felt who was sold the bill of goods that LSD would cleanse his doors of perception, lead him to strawberry fields and unleash his creativity. The only thing Awood’s acid trip got him was shaved eyebrows, Bruce tattooed on his left shoulder and a twelve-hour conversation with a giant Raggedy Ann doll.

The Obama Hangover is kinda like . . . okay . . . I’ll stop.

I know it hurts. You feel screwed, glued and tattooed.

All of us demonic conservatives hate to say we told you so, but . . . we told you so. Obama’s no savior. He’s a socialist, a Jimmy Carter with a tan, tighter abs and minus the southern drawl.

No doubt, of course, the compost-brained, frequent idiot mile club liberals aren’t upset with Barack’s performance—or lack thereof—and are still fully aroused at the potential that their wet dream of turning America into Amsterdam might finally, finally, come true. And it will if the stimulus, or spending package as Obama calls it, gets through. They have the sweetest hangover; they don’t want to get over it.
But the moderates and the straight goofy evangelicals who blew off their heads for hype have got to be losing that killer buzz they’ve been stoned on for the last two years and are sitting on their couches eating dry Captain Crunch and saying what Michael Phelps must be saying right now, i.e. “What the hell was I thinking? What happened to the ‘fresh winds of change’ crap that we were told was going to blow inside the Beltway once O got enthroned? This ain’t Febreze, this is . . . Fa-fa-funky.”

Yep, with the appointment of four tax cheats, a Playboy-Penthouse-library porn lawyer to the DOJ, the acceleration of RuPaul rights, radical abortion edicts, the closing of Gitmo and the planned relocating of the detainees to our backyards, apologies to the Muslim world, a stimulus package that’s loaded with more pork than Larry the Cable Guy after a Denny’s Sausage Slam breakfast, and Pelosi doing her best Margot Kidder imitation, your glory boy is showing all the discernment of Paula Abdul.

His approval ratings are starting to tank as your head is beginning to pound.

Here’s whatcha gotta do to get some relief:

1. Tell yourself that God still loves you (He doesn’t like you much) even though you’re a culpable dork for this debacle.
2. Go to iTunes and download The Who’s song, “We Won’t Get Fooled Again.” Listen to that about fifty times.
3. Block the MSM and MSNBC on your remote.
4. Start watching Fox News.
5. Read everything Townhall.com posts every day ‘til Christ returns.
6. Repeat step #2.
7. Read Saul Alinsky’s book Rules for Radicals to understand Barack’s verbiage and where he intends to drive this nation.
8. Read Newt’s book, Real Change, Bernie’s book, Slobbering Love Affair, Delingpole’s book, Welcome to Obamaland and Barton’s book, Original Intent.
9. Get a sledgehammer and hit yourself with it.
10. Go look for all our cherished traditional American convictions that made our country great that your threw away and then once again esteem them.
11. Throw away your buttsmacker lip balm.
12. Say “yeah, right” one thousand times.
13. Repeat step #9.
14. Realize that the government is not your friend.
15. Repeat step #2.

And with that you should start feeling a little better and a little less guilty.

This is by no means a complete guide to cure your Obama Hangover. No doubt some of my readers have great remedies also, and I’d love for all of you to share your cures here with Townhall.com’s readers.
So . . . put down what you’re doing and lend a helping hand with your cures for all those now suffering from the Obama Hangover.

Let ‘er rip!

Happy Birthday Murphy!

Happy Birthday Murphy!!…and Thank You for this site which has given us solace and inspiration!! You deserve the best day ever!!

FLBarbara 02.08.09 at 2:16 pm

Was just in a store and an Obot was wearing a button that said

I support my President.

—

He needs the feather in the ass can’t fly button

btw the reason they wear those buttons, is so when the koolaid wears off they’ll remember who they voted for.

Happy Birthday Murphy!!!!! Thank you for starting this site and for always listening. You’re a wonderful person and I hope you get everything on your B-Day list!!!
Puma Power!

Trish,

LOL I will make that a button too

Using Dances “Just because I am in the white house doesn’t make me President”

I am LMAO thinking of the Obots face when he said “Obama won” he said it like he was telling me news and I was crazy for not knowing the big news.

I think that’s what I am going to do to play with their heads. Keep telling them Hillary is President.
See look at my button can you read?

This could be a way to pass the next four years

BTW can you arrange to keep Obama oh Flush when he visits Canada PLEASE Pretty PLEASE

Henry,

Macys also and is the only major company to sell the Baskets made by women in war torn countries. It is there only source of income and Macys was the only store who accepted the deal of no profits to seller 100 percent goes to the women. I applaud their efforts.

So support Macys and their efforts and buy a basket thru Women for Women International and leave the shirt were in belongs .on the rack.

Better yet how do you say
“Just because I have a feather up my ass doesn’t mean I can fly” in french?

Thanks TT love that.

FLBarbara
could not disagree with you more
because a company does a pr stunt by selling baskets they purchased for pennies does not give them the right to endorse the most misognist candidate ever and then proceed to market the sob to the shopper. The majority of which are woman. Tshirts end up creating the concept of inevitability. And if ya wanna talk about novelty t’s they are usually sold by hard working american vendors who may now loose a substantial amount of income due to sells from Macy’s.!!!!!

Is Macy’s an expensive store to shop in?

macy’s is probably the most prominent department store ever. Advertising is often subtle and by having that rat prick bastards name and face depicted in the store is an endorsement.
NO NO NO NO

Less expensive than Nieman-Marcus, more expensive than…uh… Mervyns, et al.

Trish
yes and no
as they have great sales
by the way they market to women as women do most of the shopping so again I offer a link to tell them what you think
http://www1.macys.com/service/contactus/index.jsp

Am I alone in thinking that a multi-billion dollar company that generates almost all of its income from women is not engaging in propoganda by selling bambi shit!!!!!

TrishfromCanada 02.08.09 at 3:07 pm

Is Macy’s an expensive store to shop in?

————————————
Nope…just a run of the mill department store, overpriced so the stuff they sell is expensive compared to the same things you can buy at Marshall’s or TJMAX.
Macy’s is not in the same league as Sax’s FIFTH Avenue.

trish
get your point but it is propoganda makes it inevitable that he wins again.
Noone sits at home and sees a commercial and runs out to buy the product but because of the way advertisers condition the public you opt for coke over pepsi. And I again say women do the shopping. So iof everyday you walk by a bambi shirt something sinks in. If you do not want to boycott the May department company at least tell them what you think. Bottom of the page
http://www1.macys.com/service/contactus/index.jsp

Murphy: I have quoted and defended Rush Limbaugh on here several times. No, he is not always right, and I know that he is a right-wing hack. Because I am a moderate liberal, I keep an open mind to what I hear. I practice what I teach in college – critical thinking. Rush does point out things that I did not know that is going on, and he knows more than an Obot any day. He gives the perspective from the other side, that is badly needed because we don’t get it from the MSM or CNN or ABC or NBC, etc. Do I always agree with him – no. However, I guess you are telling me to not speak of him again on this blog, so I won’t.

(((Murphy)))

Happy early Birthday wishes from the Goof House. Treasure the fact that you make a difference in peoples lives everyday.

You challenge us to think and grow. This makes you a truly awesome person!!

Murphy
care to give me the address of your local library, as I will send them a copy of Learning to Fly. A kids book about Hillary Clinton that every young girl should have access to

murphy 02.08.09 at 2:14 pm

anyone who wants bible-thumping, xenophobic rhetoric is not READY to be a thinking citizen. If you can’t throw away the talking points, from EITHER side, then you’re doomed to be fooled again and again and again.

Just because the Democrats are wrong, it does NOT follow that the Republicans are right.

We already KNEW that the Repubs were wrong, what we found out this year is how very wrong the Dems are too.
************************************************
Exactly. Are all you Republicans listening. Stop the far right propoganda and join the reality train. Neither party is right now. Sad but true.

February 9, 2009
Bailout Announcement Pushed Back to Tuesday
By SHARON OTTERMAN
With Congress wrangling over the details of the $800 billion-plus stimulus package, the Treasury Department said on Sunday that it would cede the political stage to those negotiations and delay until Tuesday the rollout of the Obama administration’s multibillion dollar plan to assist the nation’s troubled banking system.

Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner had been scheduled on Monday to present the broad outlines on how his department would spend remaining $350 billion of the bailout funds approved last year by Congress. Instead, economic officials “will be working and consulting with the senators throughout the day,” the Treasury Department said in a statement.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/02/09/us/politics/09talkshows.html?hp=&pagewanted=print

There is not a store you can walk into today and not see Obama merchandise for sale.I can’t boycott all stores because they have a Obama collector plate for sale that is not possible.

The baskets Macys are selling now are made in Rwanda. The woman are taught how to make these beautiful baskets. They are not expensive at all.It is always my choice of a gift
. They can be bought in the store or ordered on line.

I will support any organization that puts money in the pockets of woman who so desperatly need our support.
.
The sale of one basket supports a woman and her family for one month.in a country where it is her only means of support.

I support ALL women.

(p.s. HP, I never get lost!)

p.p.s.

ya ya sure and you never cry….did you not get a tire fixed in my town and you claimed you were lost, did you cry?

A statement by Rep. Ron Paul on the Economic Stimulus and the Federal Reserve.

Cures for Our Economic Disease

I have recently had several opportunities on various news programs to discuss the economy and what is wrong with the so-called economic stimulus package. I have said over and over what we shouldn’t be doing, and now I’d like to explain what we should be doing.

But to improve the situation, you must first have a solid grasp of how we got here. Government policies and central planning created the housing bubble, now going bust. About a decade ago the government made expanded homeownership and affordable housing a public goal. Through Fannie Mae, Freddie Mac and the secondary mortgage market the government incentivized creative, low down-payment, more widely available mortgage products, and discouraged the market-proven lending standards of the past. The Federal Reserve kept interest rates artificially low, which added more fuel to this fire. Many related sectors temporarily flourished because of this, and many people got into homes they otherwise could not have afforded. The increased demand for housing sent prices soaring until in many markets housing became even more unaffordable, necessitating even more creative mortgages, and impossibly leveraging homeowners. Many risky investment vehicles such as mortgage-backed securities, derivatives, credit default swaps grew out of this unsustainable situation. As the foreclosures began, the house of cards started to tumble. Too many people have confused the symptoms and the pain of the bust with the problematic policies that caused the bubble, which is really what needs to be treated.

First of all, just as the best cure for a hangover is not to drink so much, the best cure for a recession is a recession. It is time to sober up and return to free market sanity, risk and reward, supply and demand, without political intervention. Politicians are good at catering to the needs of special interests, but very bad at determining what needs to take place in the market. Government should stick to punishing fraud and enforcing contracts. When they use the tax code, bureaucratic departments and their manipulative rules and regulations to dictate social and economic behavior, we end up with distortions and malinvestments. Bailing out banks, continuing failed Fed policies and strapping the taxpayer with toxic debt will worsen the pain, and punish the innocent.

If Congress really wanted to do something helpful, it would cut taxes. Ideally, we would repeal the income tax altogether and get the IRS off the economy’s back, which would be a huge boon. We should also cut spending. Cut every unconstitutional department and program, every wasteful governmental encroachment on the people’s liberty and money, starting with our massive overseas empire. The cost of our empire is bringing us to our knees, just as the Soviets’ empire did to them. Congress should also abolish the Federal Reserve and take back its responsibilities to ensure sound money, safe from the manipulations of powerful banking interests.

These things would constitute real change, real economic stimulus. The plans being bandied about Washington are just more of the same. As long as no one seriously considers the cure, we are unfortunately destined to prolong the disease.

Posted by Ron Paul (02-02-2009, 02:27 PM) filed under Monetary Policy

Barack Obama is a novice – and it shows
After a rocky start, the new President knows he has to seize back the political agenda, says Toby Harnden.

During last year’s epic election campaign, Hillary Clinton said that in the White House “there is no time for on-the-job training”. Joe Biden, too, remarked that the presidency was “not something that lends itself to on-the-job training”. Both were aiming barbs at their then primary opponent. Mrs Clinton has since brought what she would refer to as her “lifetime of experience” to the role of Secretary of State, while Mr Biden has traded 36 years in the Senate for the vice-presidency. And the rookie they derided is President.

Now, the words of his former rivals are returning to haunt President Obama. After a distinctly rocky start to his presidency, he has admitted he “screwed up” and is returning to one thing in his political career that he has perfected – campaigning. In Elkhart, Indiana, today and Fort Myers, Florida, tomorrow, Mr Obama will try to seize back control of the political agenda with question-and-answer sessions with voters in two of the swing states that gave him victory.

Already, however, he is struggling, and the product he is now selling is not himself but a near-trillion-dollar economic “stimulus” package loaded with pet Democratic spending projects that has awakened slumbering Republicans in Congress and is now supported by barely a third of Americans. In between the Indiana and Florida stops, he will return to the White House for a prime-time press conference in which he will appeal directly to citizens and seek to rekindle the magic of his campaign.

Which President Obama will turn up remains to be seen. Last week, he began as a wide-eyed bystander buffeted by events as he lost his key confidant, Tom Daschle, amid an uproar over $128,000 in unpaid taxes for a chauffeur and limousine. Mr Obama and his advisers believed the oversight did not matter because the over-arching virtue of the new White House could not be doubted. He was wrong and seemed out of touch in believing that ordinary people would not notice the contrast between the practice of politics as usual and his campaign slogans against it.

The White House is now in damage-control mode. After Robert Gibbs, Mr Obama’s spokesman, was lampooned by Jon Stewart on The Daily Show as a non-answering automaton in the mode of President George W Bush’s press secretaries, former campaign strategist David Axelrod was dispatched to television studios to make the stimulus case. However, this was tinkering around the edges.

The American presidency is a platform without parallel, offering the incumbent a degree of instinctive deference and goodwill and a megaphone that will amplify his voice across 50 states and the world beyond. But it is also a lonely perch for the timid.

In the early days of his presidency, Mr Obama has seemed passive and uncertain. Instead of drawing up his own economic stimulus bill, he sub-contracted the job to Democrats on Capitol Hill. They opted to spend money on projects for contraception and beautifying the National Mall – their doorstep – and gave Republicans an plenty of ammunition against the package.

Slipped into the small print was a “Buy America” provision that sent shock waves through capitals from Brussels to Beijing and triggered fears of trade wars and a new American protectionism. It was hard for the President to defend a bill he perhaps didn’t fully support himself. He neither championed the package as imperfect but essential, nor sought to make meaningful changes to it. Instead, he attempted to charm Republican centrists with his own personality and the trappings of the White House by inviting them over for cocktails and a Super Bowl party. It didn’t work. Of 219 Republicans on Capitol Hill, only three voted for the bill. Introducing a $500,000 pay cap for some Wall Street executives was empty – and possibly counter-productive – populism.

Mr Obama cast aside his emollient talk to deliver the red meat at Williamsburg. It was an abrupt change of tone that will come with a price, just as the double standard of preaching about the evils of influence-peddling and lobbyists and then giving Mr Daschle a pass on his tax evasion will not be forgotten by many ordinary Americans.

“We lived it for two years, and we forgot it for a couple of weeks,” Mr Gibbs remarked ruefully when asked about why Team Obama rationalised away their own principles because they wanted their old friend in the Cabinet.

The activists who formed the backbone of Mr Obama’s election campaign appear less than energised. Few answered his call for house-party gatherings at the weekend to build support for the economic stimulus plan. Mr Obama could be forgiven a little nostalgia. Saturday Night Live gently ribbed him, imagining a national address in which he breaks off talking about economic gloom to say: “Remember election night. Grant Park in Chicago. Nice weather. Oprah. That white guy Oprah was crying on. Good times.”

Governing, as Mr Obama is finding out, is not like an election campaign. Mr Bush’s failures will give him some leeway and his transformative appeal remains potent. But making decisions and operating the levers of power is something completely new to him. And it shows.
http://www.telegraph.co.uk/comment/personal-view/4561229/Barack-Obama-is-a-novice—and-it-shows.html