IDoSugar -- Meant to be.

Should Bailed-out Banks Disclose What They Do With Money?

LibertySugar — Mon, 22 Dec 2008 11:00:29 -0800

Out of the 21 banks that received at least $1 billion in government money, none would answer four simple questions posed by the Associated Press: How much has been spent? What was it spent on? How much is being held in savings, and what's the plan for the rest?

When asked, a spokesperson for JPMorgan Chase, which received $25 billion in taxpayer money, said: "We've not given any accounting of, 'Here's how we're doing it.' We have not disclosed that to the public. We're declining to." The $700 billion given to the Treasury Department to buy stock in banks is intended to encourage banks to lend money. Yet lawmakers put in no mechanism or consequences to make sure that happens.

Meanwhile, the AP also reports that the 116 banks that have received a bailout spent $1.6 billion on top-tier executive compensation in 2007. So while their banks faced impending collapse and a need for billions in bailouts, the leaders of the banks received millions in salaries. And now — they won't even tell us where our money is going! I think some executives, and lawmakers who let the bailout go through without any strings, have some explaining to do.

Source

Jiminy Cricket! Bush's White House Issues "Conscience Rule"

LibertySugar — Thu, 18 Dec 2008 15:30:23 -0800

Medical professionals who oppose abortion, sterilization, certain contraception, or other medical procedures for moral or religious reasons still have a friend in President Bush. The Bush administration formally issued its "conscience rule" today, which prohibits recipients of federal money from discriminating against doctors, nurses, or other healthcare providers who refuse to participate in procedures as a result of their convictions.

The current secretary of Health and Human Services explains that "This rule protects the right of medical providers to care for their patients in accord with their conscience." But such protection might not last for long, since Barack Obama's already looking for a Plan B. The transition team has dedicated time to figuring out how to reverse the right of conscience as soon as possible. It could take some time though.

Since a conscience is inherently subjective, it seems problematic to let a sliding standard determine healthcare available to patients. Can you think of any other job a person would get if he refused to do part of it? Do you think requiring healthcare professionals to provide legal services that offend their morals is discrimination or reasonable?

Source

No News Is Good News: Companies Going Broke

LibertySugar — Tue, 09 Dec 2008 00:01:13 -0800

Announcements from major media companies yesterday made it clear that the recession has hit those who report on it. Meanwhile, the Pulitzer Prizes announced plans to accept submissions from web-only news outlets, providing a redundant wake-up call to traditional news companies failing to get by. Here's a roundup of traditional media's most recent struggles:

New York Times: Like many Americans, the New York Times Company will borrow against its house to keep the cash flowing. Specifically, the paper of record will take $225 million out against its Manhattan headquarters.

For the rest of this sad news story,

Bush Made the Tough Calls But the Mistakes Weren't His

LibertySugar — Tue, 02 Dec 2008 00:02:17 -0800

President Bush's interview with Charlie Gibson aired last night, and Bush made it clear that he intends to leave office with his head held high. Reflecting on the highs and lows of his presidency, Bush concluded that it has been a "joyous" experience. Here are some of the excerpts:

On the Iraq war intelligence: "The biggest regret of all the presidency has to have been the intelligence failure in Iraq. A lot of people put their reputations on the line and said the weapons of mass destruction is a reason to remove Saddam Hussein. It wasn’t just people in my administration; a lot of members in Congress, prior to my arrival in Washington D.C., during the debate on Iraq, a lot of leaders of nations around the world were all looking at the same intelligence. And, you know, that’s not a do-over, but I wish the intelligence had been different, I guess."
On what he was unprepared for: "I think I was unprepared for war. In other words, I didn't campaign and say, 'Please vote for me, I'll be able to handle an attack.' In other words, I didn't anticipate war. Presidents — one of the things about the modern presidency is that the unexpected will happen.
On how he judges his legacy: "The thing that's important for me is to get home and look in that mirror and say, I did not compromise my principles. And I didn't. I made tough calls. And some presidencies have got a lot of tough decisions to make."
On Obama's election: "I think it was a repudiation of Republicans. And I'm sure some people voted for Barack Obama because of me. I think most people voted for Barack Obama because they decided they wanted him to be in their living room for the next four years explaining policy."

Considering that many in the media and numerous Democrats supported the war, do you think history will forget that Bush overlooked good intelligence and reports from the inspectors that concluded Iraq had no WMDs?

President Bush Calls Iraq War a Success

LibertySugar — Tue, 25 Nov 2008 00:01:50 -0800

While debris from collapsing financial institutions continue to fall during the final days of the Bush Administration, the President has found something he considers a "success" — the Iraq war.

In an interview played on Japanese TV this week, a "very pleased" Bush said:

I think the decision to remove Saddam Hussein was right. . . . We are bringing troops home because of the success in Iraq. But Iraq is not yet completely safe. So there will be a US presence for a while there at the request of the Iraqi government. The United States is willing to continue to help. Most countries there within a very broad coalition have come home but we want to help this government.

Since the war began, more than 4,200 US soldiers have died, along with hundreds of thousands of Iraqis. And don't forget the monetary cost. At the five-year anniversary, the cost of the Iraq war topped $600 billion — perhaps Bush forgot his original prediction that the war would cost only $60 billion. Despite the human and financial cost, do you think the Iraq war will ultimately be a success?

Source

DVD Explains How to Fight the Local Gay Agenda

LibertySugar — Fri, 21 Nov 2008 10:30:25 -0800

Eureka Springs has become the San Francisco of Arkansas, according to the American Family Association. The AFA's latest DVD — They're Coming to Your Town — teaches unsuspecting Christian communities how to prevent gays from taking over their towns. If you're so inclined, you can purchase the DVD in a five-pack and distribute it to your friends or Sunday school teachers.

Salon points out that the besieged town's city council recently implemented a domestic partnership registry for gay couples after a unanimous vote, thus making Eureka a great example of the homosexual threat AFA seeks to combat. I guess only straight people can be part of American families?

Source

McCain Funded Palestinian Professor He Now Ties to Obama

LibertySugar — Thu, 30 Oct 2008 15:45:00 -0700

This week the McCain ticket has tried to tenuously connect Barack Obama to Columbia University professor Rashid Khalidi, a leading scholar of Middle Eastern studies, who served on the University of Chicago faculty with Obama.

Sarah Palin said yesterday: "This is important because his associate, Rashid Khalidi . . . in addition to being a political ally of Barack Obama, he's a former spokesperson for the Palestinian Liberation Organization." But while Barack Obama was acquainted with Khalidi (who denies ever being the PLO spokesman), John McCain led an organization that gave Khalidi money for research.

While John McCain served as chairman of the International Republican Institute during the 1990s, he oversaw grants to Khalidi's Palestinian research center, including one grant for half a million dollars. To see how McCain is trying to push a one-sided version of the story,

Does Calling Obama a Socialist Cross the Line?

LibertySugar — Wed, 22 Oct 2008 15:45:00 -0700

In 2001 John McCain voted against the Bush tax cuts, part of which Barack Obama now wants to let expire (while keeping some in place). In 2000, McCain shared a take on the progressive tax system, which deviates from the one he has now. He confronted a question from the daughter of "Joe the Doctor" who asked McCain at a 2000 townhall: "Why is it that someone like my father, who goes to school for 13 years, gets penalized in a huge tax bracket because he's a doctor?" McCain responded:

[You're] questioning the fundamentals of a progressive tax system where people who make more money pay more in taxes than a flat, across-the-board percentage. . . . But I believe that when you really look at the tax code today, the very wealthy, because they can afford tax lawyers and all kinds of loopholes, really don't pay nearly as much as you think they do when you just look at the percentages. And I think middle-income Americans, working Americans, when the account and payroll taxes, sales taxes, mortgage pay — all of the taxes that working Americans pay, I think they — you would think that they also deserve significant relief, in my view.

Well now McCain is taking Obama to task for "socialist" plans such as restoring taxes on those making $250,000 to Clinton-era levels. Some say the latest tactic isn't about tax policy as much as it is about exploiting a cultural divide. To see why,

Palin Shows Guilt-By-Association Attacks Often Hypocritical

LibertySugar — Fri, 10 Oct 2008 00:01:00 -0700

Sarah Palin has been painting Barack Obama as unpatriotic lately, bringing up Obama's acquaintance with William Ayers, a current college professor and former member of the Weather Underground, a radical organization that wanted to end the Vietnam War through acts of domestic terrorism when Obama was eight-years-old.

But the McCain/Palin ticket has dubious associations of its own. One example: Palin's connection to the separatist Alaskan Independence Party, founded by Joe Volgar who died buying explosives and said while alive: "The fires of hell are frozen glaciers compared to my hatred for the American government." Robert F. Kennedy, Jr. wrote about the apparent hypocrisy yesterday:

If McCarthy-era guilt-by-association is once again a valid political consideration, Palin, it would seem, has more to lose than Obama. Palin, it could be argued, following her own logic, thinks so little of America's perfection that she continues to "pal around" with a man —her husband, actually — who only recently terminated his seven-year membership in the Alaskan Independence Party. Putting plunder above patriotism, the members of this treasonous cabal aim to break our country into pieces and walk away with Alaska's rich federal oil fields and one-fifth of America's land base — an area three-fourths the size of the Civil War Confederacy. AIP's charter commits the party "to the ultimate independence of Alaska," from the United States which it refers to as "the colonial bureaucracy in Washington." It proclaims Alaska's 1959 induction as a state "as illegal and in violation of the United Nations charter and international law."

To find out about Palin's ties, as recent as this year,

He's Back! Diddy's all Halloween-y — Sarah Palin "Scares Him"

CitizenSugar — Fri, 03 Oct 2008 06:00:18 -0700

Diddy's back with a new video blog, and though it's not as long on nonsense as his last offering it's equally (and arguably) as short on substance. At least it's seasonally appropriate! Starring in his own horror movie, Diddy plays the clip of Katie and Sarah discussing newspapers, and Palin's reluctance to name a specific paper. The rest of the video is Diddy under the covers, in a not un-amusing homage to The Blair Witch Project, he cowers and says things like, "She's worse than the Boogeyman."

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The meat of his argument seems to be, "You could become the president of the United States. Did you hear the answer to that question? John McCain is 72." Though he opts not to go further with specifics. Much like Palin opting not to reveal certain media titles by which to possibly present a bias? Similar, Diddy? His claim isn't without some basis in fact, 30 percent of all Vice Presidents have gone on to takeover the top spot — though it would have been a nice addition to his argument if he'd included it. Maybe in the extended director's cut.

His grand finale, "I'm not coming out the covers. It safe underneath the covers. . . if I stay underneath the covers, she won't become president," is punctuated with a "Sarah!" His heart might be in the right place it's allegedly about getting out the vote — but I'd love to know a little bit more about why he's so scared of Sarah Palin. He caps it with an appeal to register to vote and the deadline (which in some states is sooner than the 6th, so check for yourself.) Who do you think is scarier — Sarah — or Diddy?