There's been some rising interest in the GIVE act that was just approved by the House. Everything about this bill is abhorrent, but this part raised my hackles a bit. Feel free to poke around the document and post your own finds:
(c) Call to Service Campaign and September 11th Day of Service- Section 198 (as amended by subsection (b) (42 U.S.C. 12653) is further amended by adding at the end the following:
'(j) Call to Service Campaign- Not less than 180 days after enactment of this Act, the Corporation shall conduct a nationwide 'Call To Service' campaign, to encourage all people of the United States, regardless of age, race, ethnicity, religion, or economic status, to engage in full- or part-time national service, long- or short-term public service in the nonprofit sector or government, or volunteering. In conducting the campaign, the Corporation may collaborate with other Federal agencies and entities, State Commissions, Governors, nonprofit and faith-based organizations, businesses, institutions of higher education, elementary schools, and secondary schools.
'(k) September 11th Day of Service-
'(1) FEDERAL ACTIVITIES- The Corporation may organize and carry out appropriate ceremonies and activities, which may include activities that are part of the broader Call to Service Campaign, in order to observe September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance at the Federal level.
'(2) ACTIVITIES- The Corporation may make grants and provide other support to community-based organizations to assist in planning and carrying out appropriate service, charity, and remembrance opportunities in conjunction with the September 11th National Day of Service and Remembrance.
'community-based organizations': they mean ACORN. ACORN will end up organizing 9/11 'remembrances'. Oh my.
'(3) CONSULTATION- The Corporation may consult with and make grants or provide other forms of support to nonprofit organizations with expertise in representing September 11th families and other impacted constituencies, in promoting the establishment of September 11th as an annually recognized National Day of Service and Remembrance.'.
#1
This can be easily nipped in the bud, by starting an unofficial campaign of referring to it as "The September 11th Day of Service Against Muslim Extremism."
#3
When voluntary becomes involuntary, it become a civilian draft.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/21/2009 10:49 Comments ||
Top||
#4
This along with the Congress tax-anyone's-bad-behavior-back-to-the-stone-age recent tactic makes me wonder if this is what it was like to live in the Soviet Union, Nazi Germany or Zimbabwe.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/21/2009 12:46 Comments ||
Top||
#5
This has me seeing RED. I mean that in more ways than one. Get the word out, send this to other major blogs! We CAN NOT let them begin the "paradise" they want with the dead of 9/11 as a springboard!
Posted by: Charles ||
03/21/2009 15:58 Comments ||
Top||
#6
Ever notice how all these groups that are obsessed with "the working class" keep looking for ways to get free labor out of all of us?
Retention bonuses for senior executives at Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac should be canceled or recouped, House Financial Services Committee Chairman Barney Frank told the companies' federal regulator.
The public insists "rightfully" that large bonuses to executives at companies receiving government aid must stop, Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat, said in a letter to Federal Housing Finance Agency Director James Lockhart today.
Fannie Chief Executive Officer Herb Allison defended the payouts in an e-mail to employees, and said he discussed their concerns with regulators that canceling retention agreements is "a breach of faith." The decision is left to Lockhart, who approved the retention bonus program in September, and defended it two days ago as being "reasonable and well thought-out."
Lockhart will be up against a national "firestorm" over executive compensation fanned by the $165 million American International Group Inc. paid in bonuses last week after taking $173 billion in bailout funds. Fannie, seized by regulators in September, awarded a total of $4.4 million in retention bonuses to four top executives in 2008, under plan designed by FHFA to keep employees from defecting after the government takeover.
The Senate plans to vote next week on levies for corporate bonuses after the House of Representatives yesterday approved a 90 percent tax on bonuses at companies receiving bailout funds.
Legislation reclaiming their bonuses "would jeopardize" Fannie's ability to fulfill President Barack Obama's housing directive, Allison said. The legislation would interfere with the company's ability to implement the administration's Homeowner Affordability and Stability Plan "that so many of you have been working nights and weekends to carry out," he said.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11128 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
I got a better idea:
Just sell Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae. Get it out of our hair.
We may not profit,but we will cut our losses and the folks at Fannie Mae and Freddy Mac can loot the place ten ways from Sunday without worrying about giving back bonuses.
#2
Ambrose Bierce defined Politics in the Devil's Dictionary: POLITICS, n. A strife of interests masquerading as a contest of principles. The conduct of public affairs for private advantage.
Sen. Dodd speaks out about AIG controversy in Connecticut on Friday
Dodd says he is disappointed with Treasury officials
Dodd: I wouldn't have included bonus provision if I had known the purpose
People are "incensed" about the "infuriating" bonuses to officials, Dodd says
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Does he really get to deduct that $6 million off his taxes? I thought that, unless AIG is a charitible organization he can't deduct his contributions on his taxes. Now, if he involuntarily gave up the cash, he might be able to call it gambling debts.
Posted by: Richard of Oregon ||
03/21/2009 10:46 Comments ||
Top||
Eliot Spitzer's first TV interview since resignation is with CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS"
Spitzer: I am a human with flaws like everyone else
Ex-New York governor says AIG is at the center of financial system meltdown
Obama to be commended for handling of economic crisis, he says
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11133 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"I failed in a very important way"
Translation: I got caught.
Posted by: Rambler in Virginia ||
03/21/2009 13:21 Comments ||
Top||
#2
Ya' beat me to it, Rambler. ;-p
Posted by: Barbara Skolaut ||
03/21/2009 15:47 Comments ||
Top||
#3
It is always delicious schadenfreude when arrogant preachy assholes prove their real ethics and standards. If he wants public rehabilitation he can get on his knees and beg, like he'd have made anyone else do.
"Bark little doggy! Bark! Get on your belly!"
Posted by: Frank G ||
03/21/2009 15:52 Comments ||
Top||
#4
in short, he regurgitated all the standard establishment talking points?
=========================================
at what point is everyone going to admit that the financial crisis has moved beyond AIG and is now tied up with investor anxiety over the pending remake of the economy in President Zero's image?
The Senate on Thursday confirmed an expert on global climate change as President Obama's top adviser on science and technology policy.
John Holdren became the president's science adviser as director of the White House Office of Science and Technology Policy. He has advocated sharp government action on climate change policy and is a former president of the American Association for the Advancement of Science, the nation's largest science organization.
Holdren celebrated Thursday evening with staff at his new office, declining to comment except to say: "I'm very happy to have been confirmed."
Holdren was a Harvard physicist who went from battling the spread of nuclear weapons to tackling the threat of global warming. As Obama's top science adviser, he now manages about 40 Ph.D.-level experts who help shape and communicate science and technology policy.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11130 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
"Hire me! Hire me!! I'm important and I hate Wall Street."
LAS VEGAS (AP) -- Nevada Sen. Harry Reid has sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking for clarification to a provision that restricts casinos from using federal stimulus funds. The Democratic majority leader says in a letter sent Friday that the provision is "overly broad" and is discouraging nonprofit groups from applying for stimulus money.
Can't say that I've ever heard of an intentionally non-profit casino.
Usually you have to count cards ...
Reid argues that casinos are often the only suitable space for conferences and workshops held by community organizations. He also cites a women's group that often uses casino hotel rooms as transitional housing for victims of violence.
That's even more lame than Chris Dodd denying he had anything to do with the AIG bonus provision.
"We're gonna put you up at the Sands until your bruises heal up, honey!"
"Do I get free drinks?"
The Senate approved the provision, introduced by Republican Senator Tom Coburn of Oklahoma, last month in a 73-24 vote. Reid voted against the measure, while Nevada Republican Sen. John Ensign supported it.
Posted by: Steve White ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11131 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Now it makes sense. Congress blew through trillions of dollars of taxpayers money. Good old Harry Reid wants to give us a chance to win it back. Gee, thanks Harry. What a guy.
Similar to other article this morning, but this is front-page WaPo!
President Obama's ambitious plans to cut middle-class taxes, overhaul health care and expand access to college would require massive borrowing over the next decade, leaving the nation mired far deeper in debt than the White House previously estimated, congressional budget analysts said yesterday.
In the first independent analysis of Obama's budget proposal, the nonpartisan Congressional Budget Office concluded that Obama's policies would cause government spending to swell above historic levels even after costly programs to ease the recession and stabilize the nation's financial system have ended.
Tax collections, meanwhile, would lag well behind spending, producing huge annual budget deficits that would force the nation to borrow nearly $9.3 trillion over the next decade - $2.3 trillion more than the president predicted when he unveiled his budget request just one month ago. Well, that was Obamanomics
Although Obama would come close to meeting his goal of cutting in half the deficit he inherited by the end of his first term, but only if a comet strikes D.C. the CBO predicts that deficits under his policies would exceed 4 percent of the overall economy over the next 10 years, a level White House budget director Peter R. Orszag yesterday acknowledged would "not be sustainable."
The result, according to the CBO, would be an ever-expanding national debt that would exceed 82 percent of the overall economy by 2019 - double last year's level - and threaten the nation's financial stability.
"This clearly creates a scenario where the country's going to go bankrupt. It's almost that simple," said Sen. Judd Gregg (N.H.), the senior Republican on the Senate Budget Committee, who briefly considered joining the Obama administration as commerce secretary. "One would hope these numbers would wake somebody up," Gregg said. Maybe now we can understand why Gregg bailed out.
Posted by: Bobby ||
03/21/2009 10:09 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11126 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
Didn't Gutter-Ball's OMB director come from the same CBO as their director? This must be some kind of "get even" vengeance on his pencil necked sloppy budgeting.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/21/2009 12:49 Comments ||
Top||
U.S. officials said Friday the State Department will spend about $1 million to renovate, reconfigure and furnish the Washington workspace of special Mideast peace envoy George Mitchell and outfit satellite offices for him in Jerusalem and in New York, where he lives.
Posted by: Fred ||
03/21/2009 00:00 ||
Comments ||
Link ||
[11127 views]
Top|| File under:
#1
and outfit satellite offices for him in Jerusalem
#2
Is this, like, different taxpayer's money than the money used by Citi and Merrill to redo their offices? I am a hard timing understanding why when this happens in DC it isn't the same as happening in NYC.
Posted by: Jack is Back! ||
03/21/2009 12:51 Comments ||
Top||
A multi-volume chronology and reference guide set detailing three years of the Mexican Drug War between 2010 and 2012.
Rantburg.com and borderlandbeat.com correspondent and author Chris Covert presents his first non-fiction work detailing
the drug and gang related violence in Mexico.
Chris gives us Mexican press dispatches of drug and gang war violence
over three years, presented in a multi volume set intended to chronicle the death, violence and mayhem which has
dominated Mexico for six years.
Rantburg was assembled from recycled algorithms in the United States of America. No
trees were destroyed in the production of this weblog. We did hurt some, though. Sorry.
