J's Cafe Nette

Archive for January 27th, 2009

My home state is Maine, and for a republican to get elected anywhere in the Northeast the republican must be a moderate or actually a liberal politician.

This is one time I can be proud of one of my home state’s senators. Sen. Susan Collins explains why she couldn’t and ultimately didn’t vote for Timothy Geithner’s confirmation to Treasury Secretary:

On the other hand, Sen. Olympia Snowe stayed true to form and rubber-stamped the nomination.

Here’s the list of republican senators who voted for confirmation:

Corker
Cornyn
Crapo
Ensign
Graham
Gregg
Hatch
Shelby
Snowe
Voinovich

If they had all voted no Geithner would have received 50 votes instead of 60 votes and he still would have won since we don’t have a complete senate yet, but at least the message would have been sent.

Tomorrow I will put in a call to the third senator from the state of Arizona, who is posing as the senior senator from my current state of South Carolina, Lindsey Graham, and tell him how I feel about his vote.

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While the media and politicians (at home and abroad) jockeyed for position on the Iraq war, its residents have seen the fruits of not only the labors of the joint military forces but of their own citizens:

When hypocrites and extremists sober up from their shoe hangover they will see a new Iraq which will not be easy for them to recognize. Even harder for them will be to contain the tides of freedom and democracy which are bound to reach their shores and shake the foundations of dictatorships and extremism.

Those seeking perfection will never find it. Just look at our own country as it serves as a prime example of a nation still striving to find itself.

What is a travesty is that for pure political domination many sought to destroy those who believed in freedom for those oppressed.

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Just thought you would like to know:

Quite simply, quite plainly, just by virtue his being, Obama is America. The first true American to lead our nation.

What are you thinking right now?

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Tax cheat extrairdinaire Timothy Geithner has been confirmed 60-34 and sworn in as Treasury Secretary.

By now we all know his story. He failed to pay back income taxes until ordered to do so, but paid only the two years in which the statute of limitations had not expired. He paid those taxes when he knew he was going to be nominated for Sec. Treas. Of course, he didn’t have to pay any penalties. What a sweet deal.

I can just see someone going to tax court now saying he wants the same treatment Geithner got: pay the back taxes with no penalties.

I wonder how the judge will react to that.

Every year we get audited for something that is legitimate and agreed it is once checked by the IRS.

Geithner didn’t and may not pay his taxes the whole time he’s Sec. Treas. Why should he? He heads the IRS.

In no way am I encouraging anyone to cheat on their taxes, but err in the government’s favor if you do err.

I’m getting a headache.

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The House Democrats and some weak-kneed Republicans will go along, have written a new stimulus package that doesn’t seem to stimulate the economy all that much unless you think free contraceptives creates jobs.

Parts of the new stimulus bill include new sod for the Washington Mall. Yeah, I guess it got torn up pretty good during the inauguration and is incapable of rejuvenating itself with some new seed and fertilizer. So they have earmarked a million or so dollars to put in new sod to be trod upon by visitors in the spring and summer.

And let’s not forget extra money for the arts. Goodness knows we couldn’t live without seeing the Virgin Mary dipped in urine or spread with feces. Or how about the “artist” who can make feces from scratch using a machine. Yep, we need to keep funding that sort of thing. It will bring a lot of jobs. Sarcasm off.

There is plenty of pork to go around because they had a big barbecue and have a lot of leftovers.

The thing that bothers me a lot is they want to cut payroll taxes so those who pay no income taxes will get a tax cut.

What about the rest of us who are retired and no longer subject to payroll taxes, but are subject to the same income taxes everyone else is?

The biggest problem with cutting payroll taxes is the tremendous amount of people who are now or soon to be unemployed and won’t have payroll taxes anyway.

Why do Democrats always have an aversion to cutting income taxes? Yes, we are in uncharted waters, but tax cuts should be a large part of a stimulus package so people can hold onto what little money they have. It will put money into the economy immediately, and Congress can take the time necessary to put forth a considered bill without the pork. We can’t afford spam now, let alone pork. Republicans and Democrats, alike, need to get this through their thick skulls.

Now we get word that our new president has granted his first interview since taking office and the lucky news organization to get the “get” is Al-Arabia.

I think Israel might be getting the jitters, and I’m beginning to wonder what’s going on if he can’t grant an interview with an American news source, even the fawning press who love him would work, instead of his first interview with an Arab audience.

When asked a simple question by Politico last week about why he was hiring a lobbyist for the Defense Department the president got irritated and said something to the effect of “See, this is what happens. I come down here to visit with you and you ask questions.” Umm, they are the press and it is their job to ask questions, though some as fluffier ones than Politico did.

Oy vey!

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We have already heard Pelosi and Obama remind the world they won and we can like it or lump it. It doesn’t matter because the new era of post-partisanship is just like a cloud that disappears, and disappear it has, if it was ever there.

Now House Judiciary Chairman John Conyers has issued a subpoena for Karl Rove to appear before his committee on Feb. 2 to discussing the firings of US Attorneys and the prosecution of former Alabama Gov. Don Siegelman.

The body isn’t even cold yet and the witch hunt has begun.

Former Attorney General Michael Mukasey named a special prosecutor in September to investigate whether former Attorney General Alberto Gonzales, other Bush administration officials or Republicans in Congress should face criminal charges in the firings of the U.S. attorneys.

The inquiry followed the recommendation of internal Justice Department investigators who concluded that, despite administration denials, political considerations played a part in the firings of as many as four of the federal prosecutors. Conyers wants to know what role Rove played in the dismissals.

Siegelman has alleged his prosecution was pushed by Republicans, including Rove. The former governor was convicted on bribery and other charges and was sentenced to more than seven years in prison. He was released early, when a federal appeals court ruled his appeal raised “substantial questions.”

Conyers said in a statement that times have changed.

He said Bush’s position of “absolute immunity” was “rejected by U.S. District Judge John Bates and President Obama has previously dismissed the claim as ‘completely misguided,”‘ Conyers said.

“I have said many times that I will carry this investigation forward to its conclusion, whether in Congress or in court, and today’s action is an important step along the way.

“Change has come to Washington, and I hope Karl Rove is ready for it. After two years of stonewalling, it’s time for him to talk.”

Last July, Bates rejected Bush’s contention that senior White House advisers are immune from subpoenas, siding with Congress’ power to investigate the executive branch.

Conyers also has sought testimony from former White House Counsel Harriet Miers, and ex-White House chief of staff Josh Bolten — although only Rove was named in the new subpoena.

Emphasis mine.

OK, so some of the dismissals were political. Hold the presses! The president has the right to dismiss his appointees for any reason he wants.

What’s so hard to figure that out? In other words, unless Congress passes an ex post facto law (and I wouldn’t put anything beneath them, because after all, they won and they have a majority that can do anything all by themselves. I started to say a fool-proof majority but that would be a lie since we have so many fools in congress who have bloated up so much they require their suits and pantsuits to be let out two sizes at least.

So, let’s watch our post-partisan Democrats in action and see if the people agree. Maybe they will as they seem to be sore winners more than they were sore losers before.

To clear this up, I’m talking about the fringe left who are about to drop off the left side of the earth.

Off with the former administration’s heads! will be the new cry of Conyers and company and they won’t be happy until all are 1) in jail, 2) in debt with legal bills or 3) tried at The Hague.

I suspect the latter option is being reserved for George W. Bush and Richard B. Cheney.

And we wonder why we can’t get good people to serve our country.

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These artistic renditions at Mother, May I Sleep With Treacher? are very clever. Keep scrolling here for more.

Perhaps I simply missed the coverage of this (I say tongue in cheek):

On Thursday, I went to visit [my sister] at her new house in West Virginia. I changed trains in DC and had about 1/1/2 hours to kill. I walked outside Union Station and found myself in the middle of a massive right-to-life demonstration. The area around the Capitol was jammed with about a half million people. I saw crowds of Catholic clergy and lay people. But, not a TV camera or journalist with a notepad in sight.

Erick Erickson reports on the state of the race for RNC Chairman:

We can be pretty sure right now that at the end of the week we won’t see Blackwell or Saltsman in the Chairman’s office. As the week goes on and more shifts in voting occur, I’ll try to update with where things stand. Today though, pay attention to Duncan and Steele.

The most we can hope for at this point is that when the new chairman is selected he understands that Democrats are in constant campaign mode. Not only do the Republicans need to play catch up, they need to begin recruiting candidates who are willing to stand up to those in opposition and have the desire to win.

Karl Rove is still making people cry.

A fable turned reality?

Now the media are utterly dependent on President Obama’s good will because they sacrificed so much — their independence, their objectivity — to get him elected. The only way for the media to reassert their independence would be by subjecting Obama to the same level of scrutiny that used to characterize the status quo relationship between the press and the government. I’m not sure they can muster the credibility for such a bold move: too many people’s eyes have been opened to the gross malpractice the press has committed during the campaign — the mainstream media’s love-fest around candidate Obama.

Read the rest. It’s a very appropriate comparison.

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