Humble Hugo Chavez will not be dictator for life - unless the people want him

Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez said Tuesday he would leave office when his current term ends if voters reject a proposal that would allow him to run for re-election indefinitely.
Source and more information  http://sg.news.yahoo.com/afp/20081224/twl-venezuela-politics-referendum-4bdc673.html

Bush takes waning day shot at Russia, signing a Ukraine security charter
The United States and Ukraine have signed a security charter that establishes areas of cooperation and reemphasizes NATO membership for Ukraine.  This is part of the Bush effort to neutralize the global ambitions of Russia, which is already talking up a new invasion into Georgia, while leveling attacks at The Ukraine.

“Ukraine, obviously, is a very important partner for the United States and a good friend,” Secretary of State Condoleezza Rice said. “We have long believed that Ukraine's independence, its democracy, is essential to a Europe whole and free and at peace.”

Rice and Ukrainian Foreign Minister Volodymyr Ohryzko signed the United States–Ukraine Charter on Strategic Partnership and Security at the State Department on December 19. The document covers broad areas of cooperation, including economic development and defense, and European integration.

“The United States supports Ukraine's integration into the Euro-Atlantic structures. And in that regard, I want to assure you that the declaration at Bucharest which foresees that Ukraine will be a member of NATO when it can meet those standards is very much at the center of our policy,” Rice said.

Ohryzko said this year has been intensive for Ukraine and the United States, including visits by each president and international meetings.

“This is a very important document because it summarizes our efforts during the past year, but it also has a very important dimension for our future,” Ohryzko said.
Source and more information 
http://www.america.gov/st/peacesec-english/2008/December/20081219155712dmslahrellek5.079287e-02.html?CP.rss=true
Liberal homosexuals angry at Obama

Enthusiasm among gays over Barack Obama's election has deflated rapidly in the days since his inaugural organizers announced that the invocation would be delivered by the Rev. Rick Warren, a prominent pastor who backed a recent ballot measure banning same-sex marriage in his home state of California.

The Warren announcement coincided with the final round of Obama's Cabinet selections - confirming that gays on the short list for interior secretary and labor secretary would not get those posts.

"It felt like a double punch to the gut," said Denis Dison of the Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund, which supports openly gay political candidates. "People were afraid at that moment - we didn't know what it portended for the administration ahead."

Obama said Warren's selection reflected a desire for diversity at the inauguration and insisted he remained a "fierce advocate" of equal rights for gays.

That advocacy includes support for gay activists' key legislative goals: outlawing workplace discrimination based on sexual orientation, expanding the federal hate-crimes law to cover anti-gay violence, extending federal recognition to same-sex partnerships, and repealing the "don't ask, don't tell" policy that bars service members from openly acknowledging they are gay.

Gay-rights leaders said the furor over Warren might prompt the Obama administration to be more attentive to their concerns, and they will be watchful to see what develops.

"We are prepared to hold feet to the fire on the issues that are critical to our community," said Darlene Nipper, deputy executive director of the National Gay and Lesbian Task Force. "It's our responsibility to stay in the face of the administration."

"We have a right to expect a great deal from people who say they're our friend," said Kevin Cathcart, executive director of the gay-rights group Lambda Legal. "Maybe this is an important wakeup call to people in the transition about the weight their actions carry."

Source and more information  http://hosted.ap.org/dynamic/stories/O/OBAMA_GAYS?SITE=FLTAM&SECTION=US

 

Politicians out-Ponzi Madoff. Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme small compared to USA politicians scheme
Bernie Politicians out-Ponzi Madoff. Madoff's $50 billion Ponzi scheme is not the biggest Ponzi scheme of all time.  It is small compared to the Ponzi schemes of USA politicians.  The biggest Ponzi does not just affect wealthy people and organizations.  The USA politician's Ponzi sceme is one in which we are all victims.  It does not cost a mere $50 billion, like Madoff's, but close to $50 trillion. It is' the unfunded liabilities of the US Federal Government, particularly Medicare and Social Security.

How does it add up to $50 trillion? In a classical Ponzi scheme, the government has promised pay-outs of monies under the guise of "Social Security" and "Medicare" (among the two largest schemes) for whom taxpayers will be on the hook in the future. What about the Social Security "trust fund?" It consists primarily of IOUs denominated in government bonds, to be paid for by future taxpayers. Madoff would only have been so proud to be in charge of this giant scheme.

There are just over 100 million households in the US, although only approximately half of Americans are significant Federal income taxpayers. What that means is that some 50 million Federal income taxpayers could be the ones carrying the burden of funding this $50 trillion Ponzi scheme. That's $1 million per taxpayer, folks. If the government expands the tax base to 100 million people, it's $500,000 per person. That's the average net worth of all Americans. Everything we own is spoken for in the government's $50 trillion Ponzi scheme.

What's the bottom line? Sure Bernie Madoff is a giant crook, but even this giant pales in comparison to the Ponzi scheme in which we are all victims to the tune of anywhere from $500,000 to $1m each. One can also suspect that this number will increase further, because the government may be expanding its activities into further areas of society, including health care, the banking system, industries such as automobiles, and so forth. Are you enjoying the service you receive at the post office? At your airport's TSA station? Then you will increasingly love the world of entitlement socialism, built on these giant Ponzi schemes.

There are many things of which we can be critical of President George W. Bush, such as the new Medicare Ponzi scheme, the bailout mania, the general insane increase in government spending (all with massive Democrat support in Congress). However, for what it's worth, President Bush warned against, and tried to do something about, two of the biggest problems of all time: He tried to (1) Put the lid on the corrupt Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac that led to the mortgage crisis, and (2) Convert Social Security from a Ponzi scheme to a private 401(k)-style savings account. In future years, historians will look back at those who opposed President Bush's reform proposals in those two areas, in the same way we are now looking at Bernie Madoff, except this Ponzi scheme is 1000x larger.
Source and more information:http://seekingalpha.com/article/111590-government-s-ponzi-scheme-1000-times-worse-than-madoff-s
Russia continues preparing to confront Obama in Georgia - as well as taking on USA allies like The Ukraine, Turkey and The Czech Republic.  Can Obama take the heat

Russian investigators on Tuesday charged that volunteers from the United States and a number of other countries fought on the side of Georgia in its war against Russia.

Russian news agencies reported that Aleksandr Bastrykin, chairman of an investigative committee with the Russian prosecutor's office, said the mercenaries included nationals of the U.S., Ukraine, the Czech Republic and Turkey.

Russian officials have previously accused the U.S. and Ukraine of sending servicemen to take part in the fighting in August — claims both countries have denied.

The war over the separatist province of South Ossetia devastated Georgia, crippled its military, destroyed much of the key infrastructure and uprooted more than 160,000 people. The Kremlin recognized South Ossetia and another rebel region, Abkhazia, as independent, drawing strong condemnation from the West.
Source and more information:  http://www.newsday.com/news/nationworld/wire/sns-ap-eu-russia-georgia-war,0,1119217.story

Liberal homosexuals attack Pope.  Pope must not say homosexuality would end mankind - even it it would
See the video here http://www.breitbart.tv/?p=247273
Guide to Obama's cabinet and the super fantastic inaugural gala

Here is a nice guide to review who is in Obama's cabinet. Also read complete McClatchy coverage of the upcoming Jan. 20 presidential inauguration gala - an ostentatious party for politician egos. Play their interactive game matching quotes from past inaugurations to the presidents who delivered them. 
Site to visit:  http://www.charlotteobserver.com/static/images/graphics/obamacab/cabinent.swf

Obama's $9 Million Vacation Retreat - Obama plays while USA citizens go hungry and some of his own family members live in poverty.

See this listing for President-elect's oceanfront Hawaiian estate gets yanked
DECEMBER 22--Here's the rental listing for the $9 million Hawaiian estate that President-elect Barack Obama is renting over the Christmas holiday. The five-bedroom estate rents for upwards of $3500-a-day and sits on an acre fronting Kailua Beach in Oahu. The online listing was removed from the Hawaii's Best Rentals web site after the Associated Press yesterday reported details of the Obama vacation retreat, which was purchased earlier this year for $9 million by Kevin Comcowich, a 40-year-old Houston portfolio manager. For additional photos of the temporary Obama residence, click here for exterior shots and click here for interior photos (including one obligatory kitchen porn shot). (3 pages) Also see Obama's selfishness showing again?
 

Source and more information:- including photos of the Obama Hideaway  http://www.thesmokinggun.com/archive/years/2008/1222081obama1.html

Obama camp written report clears Obama and Obama camp in Blago affair
Obama report clears Obama in Blago affair.

Who thought the Obama Report would NOT clear Obama and his camp?

Obama, 2 top aides met with Blagojevich investigators, internal report discloses
AP Dec 23, 2008

WASHINGTON -- President-elect Barack Obama and two of his top aides met last week with federal investigators building a corruption case against Illinois Gov. Rod Blagojevich, accused of trying to swap Obama's Senate seat for cash or a lucrative job.

The interviews with Obama, along with incoming chief of staff Rahm Emanuel and adviser Valerie Jarrett, were disclosed Tuesday in an internal report produced for Obama on contacts with Blagojevich. Obama delayed releasing his report until those interviews were completed with U.S. Attorney Patrick Fitzgerald's staff, incoming White House attorney Greg Craig said in the review he wrote for Obama.

Obama had no contact with the governor or his aides, the report states. Prosecutors have said Obama is not implicated in the case.

Emanuel was the only Obama transition team member who discussed the Senate appointment with Blagojevich, and those conversations were "totally appropriate and acceptable," Craig said Tuesday. No one on Obama's transition team discussed any deals or had any knowledge of deals, Craig's report said.

Sources have said Emanuel is not a target in the case. Jarrett was never a target of the federal investigation, a transition official said.

Craig's report identified close Obama friend Eric Whitaker as someone approached by one of Blagojevich's top aides to learn "who, if anyone, had the authority to speak for the president-elect" about the Senate appointment.

The report states that Obama told Whitaker that "no one was authorized to speak for him" and that "he had no interest in dictating the result of the selection process."

Blagojevich was charged on Dec. 9 with plotting to use his governor's authority to appoint Obama's Senate replacement and make state appointments and contracts in exchange for cash and other favors. He has denied any criminal wrongdoing and has resisted multiple calls for his resignation, including one from Obama.

During Emanuel's interview with federal authorities, he listened to a taped recording of a conversation with Blagojevich's office, according to a transition official who spoke on condition of anonymity because the person was not authorized to discuss information not included in the report.

Craig's report states that Emanuel had "one or two telephone calls" with Blagojevich and four conversations with John Harris, the governor's chief of staff who later resigned after being charged in the federal case. Craig told reporters Emanuel said he couldn't be sure it was only one call.

Emanuel left for a long-planned family vacation in Africa on Tuesday and was not available for comment.

The report was released in Washington while Obama was vacationing in Hawaii. The president-elect did not make himself available for questions.

The report said Obama authorized Emanuel to pass on the names of four people he considered to be highly qualified to take over his seat -- Illinois Comptroller Dan Hynes, Illinois Veterans' Affairs Director Tammy Duckworth, Rep. Jan Schakowsky and Rep. Jesse Jackson Jr.

Obama later offered other names of what he thought were qualified candidates, including Attorney General Lisa Madigan and Chicago Urban League Director Cheryle Jackson, the report said.

"Mr. Harris did not make any effort to extract a personal benefit for the governor in any of these conversations," the report said. There was no discussion of a Cabinet position, creation of a nonprofit foundation for Blagojevich, a private sector position or of any other personal benefit for the governor, according to the report.

The report said that earlier, Emanuel recommended Jarrett for the Senate seat without Obama's knowledge, and Jarrett later accepted a job as a senior White House adviser.

Craig revealed his findings into a memo to Obama. The memo was dated Tuesday, but sent earlier to Obama
Source and more information:
New York Times fake story blames Bush for causing the fiscal crisis

    The New York Times has lied again, this time with a fake story, based on half truths blaming Bush for causing the fiscal housing Crisis.  The New York Times also recently lied about Caroline Kennedy.
    The half-truth based story blames everything on President Bush and pretends like nothing happened before he became president. The extremely biased NY Time's "liberals" did not reveal the Community Reinvestment Act under Democratic President Carter and all the things that Democratic President Clinton did and what Fannie Mae did announcing in 1999 that they would buy up loans, home loans that were made by banks to people who hadn't qualified before.
    The biased New York Time ignored 2003 and four and five, when McCain and the Bush administration pushed hard for a tough crackdown on the practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.  The New York Times did not even suggest that the Black Caucus, Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and other Democratic politicians fought to keep enabling Freddie and Fannie to make bad loans,
    It is increasingly clear why no one buys the NY Times.  George Soros Moveon.org and DailyKoz websites both provide free lies.

MORE
Panel on the Times' Housing Story  FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume
Source: FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

ED GILLESPIE, WHITE HOUSE COUNSELOR: This is cocktail party chatter in Georgetown or Manhattan masquerading as reporting. The fact is that they say that the president's deregulatory policies stoked the housing crisis when in the article itself it notes that the president was calling for stiffer regulation of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

HUME: So what is this story that so agitated the White House that not only did it send a Sunday response in the form of a statement, but also sent, as you saw there, Ed Gillespie, the president's political advisor, out on the north lawn to talk about it again today.

The story says in part, quote, "He," speaking of President Bush, "his housing policies and hands off experience to regulation encouraged lax lending standards. He pushed hard to expand home ownership, especially among minorities in an initiative that dovetailed with his ambition to expand the Republican tent and with the business interests of some of his biggest donors."

Well, that statement is correct. So what's all the grumbling about? Some thoughts on this now from Fred Barnes, executive editor of "The Weekly Standard," Nina Easton, Washington Bureau Chief of "Fortune" Magazine, and the syndicated columnist Charles Krauthammer, FOX News contributors all.

Fred, what's the-the quote I read, which lies at the heart of what "The Times" claimed, is, standing by itself, correct. So what's the fuss about?

FRED BARNES, EXECUTIVE EDITOR, "THE WEEKLY STANDARD": It is correct, but I will mention that program and the president's efforts to increase homeownership.

The problem with the story is it blames everything on President Bush and pretends like nothing happened before he became president. You can go back to the Community Reinvestment Act under President Carter and all the things that President Clinton did and what Fannie Mae did announcing in 1999 that they would buy up loans, home loans that were made by banks to people who hadn't qualified before.

They didn't have much -- they weren't going to be able to put much down and couldn't provide much proof that they were going to be able to pay off their home loan and so on.

And then you go to 2003 and four and five, and, as Ed Gillespie, says, the Bush administration was pushing hard for a tough crackdown on the practices of Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, and so on.

I mean, it was just one of the most breathtakingly one-sided, narrow story with blinders on that I have ever seen before that can only be motivated by an effort to get President Bush. I mean, you wouldn't write that piece otherwise.

Look, it's not that the Bush administration bears none of the blame. They do bear some. But this story is utterly ridiculous.

When I was writing a book about President Bush, oh, when was it? A couple of years ago--and I wrote a chapter on the ownership society. And so I looked into the homeownership program that the Bush administration had, and it was puny. It wasn't much at all. I barely mentioned it in my chapter on the ownership society.

And one of these pieces I read today said that that was the core of the ownership society idea of the Bush administration. No, it wasn't. Social Security investment accounts and so many other things were. It wasn't.

So the problem with this story is it blames a person who is only partly, and smaller than other people, to blame, and mentions no one else.

HUME: Nina?

NINA EASTON, WASHINGTON BUREAU CHIEF, "FORTUNE" MAGAZINE: As someone who is not part of Fred's media blame club, usually, I have to say that I was flabbergasted when I read this story, flabbergasted.

There are three sections to blame for this crisis we're in. You can blame Alan Greenspan and the Federal Reserve easy money supply. You can blame this whole risky slice, dice, and pass mortgages packages up the food chain so no one has responsibility for it. And, frankly, regulators should have been looking at. You can blame that.

And you can blame affordable housing policies. You cannot write a story about affordable housing policies and blame it on George Bush instead of the Democrats. It's outrageous.

You cannot go through -- as Fred said, the Democrats were so tied to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac--in 1999, the Clinton administration pressured Fannie Mae to get into this more risky business of affordable housing, meaning you give loans to people who can't afford it. You take the normal credit, normal lending standards off the table. People don't have the required income and so on, so that you can expand affordable housing.

And in "The New York Times" article at the time, it said this could lead to a savings and loan crisis. Every Bush administration official that I have interviewed in the past couple of years has always pointed to Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac being out of control, we need to rein them in, and they couldn't get the Democrats to do it.

CHARLES KRAUTHAMMER, SYNDICATED COLUMNIST: The only surprise I had in reading this is why it took "The Times" so long to getting around to blaming the entire collapse on George Bush. After all, it blames everything else on Bush, from the droughts in Kansas to hurricane Katrina.

Look, the truth is that there were two realities here. One is that we set as a national goal 30 years ago expanding homeownership, especially for low income and minorities. And it was accelerated in the Clinton administration.

And the Bush administration, Bush, who defined his ideology as compassionate, continued it.

And the other truth is that in his administration, he continued it, but he did try to regulate it the out-of-control Fannie and Freddie, who were really at the root of this explosion.

We had Franklin Raines in 1999, the CEO at the time of Fannie, boasting that they had lowered the down payment requirements and were now going to lower the interest rates paid by these lower income, subprime people, which was obviously a huge risk. And it was ignored, and it led ultimately to the calamity that we're in today.

For more visit the FOX News Special Report web page.
Source and more information:FOX News Special Report With Brit Hume

North Korea tests Obama with threat to destroy South Korea by turning into a "sea of fire."
North Korea tests Obama with threat to destroy South Korea by turning into a "sea of fire."
President Bush used the "negotiating" approach with the dictatorial North Korean regime. Bush got further than Clinton did using this approach, getting North Korea to actually destroy - openly - some of its nuclear facility. But, now that Bush is leaving, the North Korea's defense minister accused the United States and South Korea on Tuesday of plotting war on the Korean peninsula and threatened to destroy South Korea by turning into a "sea of fire.".

Defense Minister Kim Il Chol said in a speech in Pyongyang that his army would reduce South Korea to a "sea of fire" unless "pro-American warmongers hell-bent on igniting another war" stop their "rash acts."

"A grave situation is prevailing on the Korean Peninsula due to the hostile policy of the U.S. imperialists and their followers," Kim said, according to the state Korean Central News Agency.

North Korea's communist regime from time to time issues such verbal salvos during periods of tension between the two states on the divided peninsula. It has made similar threats several times, including in late October, since a conservative government took office in South Korea in February pledging to get tougher with Pyongyang.

Source and more information:  http://www.lasvegassun.com/news/2008/dec/23/nkorean-general-threatens-skorea-amid-tensions/
 

Godless Cuban Communists embrace Capitalism - For Christmas

A dictatorial Communist country that shunned God and Christmas for decades is now looking to cash in on the holiday season.  The Godless are often willing to make money off the birth of Jesus.   Cuba is promoting an online shopping site designed to let Cubans overseas buy everything from food and flowers to flat-screen TVs for delivery to relatives on the island.

Spanish-based Grupo Excelencias teamed with the communist government to create mallhabana.com, designed to let Cubans in the United States and elsewhere around the world use U.S. dollars to buy gifts for relatives here.

"It's a good business but it's also a way for Cubans (overseas) to help their family members here," Sergio Perez, the Havana director of the Spanish-language site said Tuesday.

It also appears to directly challenge U.S. legal limits on shipping money to Cuba or spending money on the island.

Dozens of the products listed are made in Cuba,  like Havana Club rum or guyabera shirts. Others are imports already stocked by upscale government-run stores, such as 29-inch Panasonic TVs or crunchy peanut butter from Canada.  Cuban Communists are beginning to see that the Capital9ist system is better than the Communist syste,
Source and more information:  

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