It's being reported that President Obama and Congress are trying to put more regulations on credit card companies and on banks, businesses and loan companies.  This is a good idea - we need to stop those bad practices that got us in this mess in the first place (I don't care if it was a Republican or Democrat that supports less regulation, although it's usually the GOP pushing for less).  However, for more immediate help with our economy we need more actions now.

I mentioned before the idea of giving incentives for consumers to go out and buy things thereby boosting sales for businesses.  I continue to feel this would the best and quickest way to get the money rolling again in our country and others.

Just sit back and think about it folks.  What causes you to go to a specific store or company to buy something (other than the immediate need for something)?  A discount, rebate or coupon - saving money on something you desire of course. 

Why would somebody cross town to buy a lawnmower when there's a store down the road from them that sells them?  Why would somebody travel to another city for an item when that same item can be found at the local department store?  To save money - that's why.

Consumers will buy if they think they are getting a great deal, if they trust the store's return policy and if the quality of their merchandise is good.

How many times have you walked into the market store to see an item that normally sells for $2.99 suddenly marked down to a $1.99 or you see that item being listed as, "buy one, get one free"?  You ever wonder to yourself, how can they afford to take such a cut to their business?  Well folks, it's either because they normally make about a 60% profit from the $2.99 original marked price or they are overstocked and need to get the item sold or lose money because they have to throw it out in a few days.  Most likely the reason is, they want to attract more customers so they are willing to take a temporary cut in profits of that item for better ones later.  In the long run, they make more money because more customers come to buy that item and while at the store, end up buying even more things.

So, going back to fixing our economy or at least helping it improve, if companies and businesses want to get better results (get consumers out buying their products) they need to start taking some hits (loss of income) in the short run to improve things for their future.

How can the government help?  Going after credit cards, backing up products like they are the GM cars and trucks, offering huge discounts like a few thousand dollars off the purchase of a car to get old clunkers (gas guzzler, environment danger) off the road is a very good start.  However, the faster way to get consumers buying again would be to offer discounts, coupons and rebates for buying everyday items like food, televisions, computers, computer games, videos, toys, clothes, car equipment/supplies, yard equipment, swimming pools, furniture, etc... 

While most of these items discounts should be handled by the company and them taking the temporary loss in revenue aiming for larger future revenues; government could offer rebates for bigger items, items that cost more than say $150. 

Rebates would be the best way to do it because it forces the consumer to buy the item at regular price (giving the company their money) and if the consumer wants that rebate back they have to follow the steps listed on the rebate paperwork (fill out the cards/application, look up the model numbers, serial numbers, date of purchase, where it was bought, etc...) and mail the request in.

I don't know about the rest of you but a lot of times I don't even bother doing all that unless the rebate is $25 or more.  So, because of people like me, a lot of money will never be spent giving rebates back to consumers yet the company got that new business anyway because of the rebate offer.

As for those that do send in the documentation, well think about it folks.  How much money is our government spending right now trying to keep companies and businesses afloat?  Billions are being given away to companies that may never revive themselves - that's money going down the drain. 

On the other hand, if that same company made a profit from new sales because the government offered rebates to the consumers, the consumer is happy, the company survives and government (taxpayers) saves money in the long run.

Let's say the government is currently giving GM $1000 per car bailout money.  The car if it had been sold would have given the company a $5,000 profit (but the car continues to sit on the lot - not selling because consumers have no incentive to go and buy it). 

Now, let's say the government offers the consumer instead of GM, a $800 rebate for buying that same car.  First off, the government just saved $200 and GM just made that $5000 profit helping them to stay afloat.  To top that off, unless the consumer fills out the paperwork, they may not even send in the rebate request, saving the government (taxpayers) even more money.

Simple logic, if we're going to spend money to help a company, it's best to spend it on consumers instead of companies because it's consumers that make the world go around - sort of speak.

Where's the 'Waterboarding Event' Hannity?

On April 22, Fox News' Sean Hannity volunteered to be waterboarded after ardently defending the practice and excoriating President Obama for ending the technique. "Clearly this president has not done his homework, and it is putting each and every American at risk," Hannity said about ending torture. Declaring he is "for enhanced interrogation," Hannity said he would happily consent to being waterboarded as a fundraiser "for the troops' families."

However, two weeks later, Hannity has yet to mention the promise again -- despite the offer from MSNBC's Keith Olbermann to help Hannity raise funds by donating $1,000 for every second Hannity is waterboarded.

So.....Sean Hannity, when is 'D-Day'?  When will you volunteer for charity to be waterboarded in public?  We're still waiting to see if after being TORTURED whether or not you continue to think it's NOT TORTURE!

Perhaps Keith Olbermann should invite Charles Grodin onto his show to ask him if Sean Hannity has contacted him with a date?

I also think it's odd that no other local/cable station is talking about THIS story.  It's just as important as when Dan Rather got into trouble over Bush's military record -- isn't it?  It's for the troops Hannity said!

We Did Indeed Torture - Waterboarded Prisoners

It's on the record now...

Former Vice President Dick Cheney defended the Bush administration's use of waterboarding on Thursday, saying that, contrary to arguments made by Barack Obama, the techniques were a necessary last-resort measure to get information from detainees.

"I don't believe that's true," Cheney said, when asked to respond to Obama's statement that interrogators may not have needed to resort to torture. "That assumes that we didn't try other ways, and in fact we did. We resorted, for example, to waterboarding, which is the source of much of the controversy, with only three individuals. In those cases, it was only after we'd gone through all the other steps of the process. The way the whole program was set up was very careful, to use other methods and only to resort to the enhanced techniques in those special circumstances."

The remarks, delivered during an interview with Scott Hennen, a conservative North Dakota radio host, glossed over the 266 instances in which the United States reportedly used waterboarding on two terrorist suspects -- a figure that would suggest the technique was either not effective or not really used as a last-resort option.

Ok, Attorney General Holder, do you job and arrest former Vice president Cheney for war crimes.  While you're at it, pick up former Secretary of State Condi Rice, Secretary of Defense Rumsfeld,  and President George W Bush.

Former Vice President Cheney can put the WORDS out there as many times as he wishes hoping to desensitize Americans to the fact that we TORTURED prisoners and therefore committed WAR CRIMES, but the fact remains the same.  The past administration are war criminals.

If this were any other country these people would be in jail - as per OUR demands.

Video

The Republicans seem to have forgotten about the TERRORIST that former President George W. Bush, Vice President Dick Cheney and 'THEY' allowed to LIVE near by all of us -- that just recently plead GUILTY of playing a part of the 9/11 attacks against America.

Accused al-Qaeda operative and former "enemy combatant" Ali Saleh Kahlah al-Marri pleaded guilty April 30 to charges of conspiring to provide material support to a foreign terrorist organization after reaching a plea agreement federal prosecutors that may send him to prison for 15 years. Prosecutors said that al-Marri, a "sleeper operative" for al-Qaeda who arrived in the country on September 10, 2001, will admit to conspiring with Khalid Sheikh Mohammed to plan attacks on the US.

As Attorney General Eric Holder said:

The al-Marri investigation and subsequent guilty plea showed that "our criminal justice system can and will hold subsequent terrorists accountable for their actions." He said that the al-Marri prosecution by a US civilian court showed that there was "no tension" between keeping "the American people safe and our civil liberties intact" and seemed to suggest that further such prosecutions are to be expected.Pursuant to the plea agreement, Al-Marri also agreed not to appeal any sentence, pursue a habeas petition or oppose his deportation to Qatar or Saudi Arabia after serving his criminal sentence. There has been speculation that al-Marri may ask for credit for time served, having been held at a naval bring in South Carolina since 2003.

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They also forget where we kept Timothy McVeigh and Terry Nichols after the terrorist bombing they planned and implemented of the Oklahoma federal building.

Timothy James McVeigh (April 23, 1968 - June 11, 2001) was a United States Army veteran and security guard who was convicted of bombing the Alfred P. Murrah Building in Oklahoma City on April 19, 1995, the second anniversary of the Waco Siege, as revenge or to inspire revolt against what he considered a tyrannical federal government. The bombing killed 168 people, and was the deadliest act of terrorism within the United States prior to the September 11, 2001 attacks. He was convicted of 11 federal offenses, sentenced to death, and executed on June 11, 2001.

At ADX Florence, McVeigh was housed in the same cell block as Ted Kaczynski, Luis Felipe, and Ramzi Yousef. The latter made frequent, unsuccessful attempts to convert McVeigh to Islam.^[71] On July 13, 1999, he was moved to death row in Terre Haute, Indiana.

WASHINGTON - President Barack Obama wants Pakistan to step up its commitment to fighting Taliban militants who are growing in strength and compromising vital U.S. interests.

In meetings at the White House on Wednesday, Obama will press Pakistani President Asif Ali Zardari to do more against the Taliban, which recently has alarmed the U.S. and its allies by striking out from strongholds on the Pakistani-Afghan border to areas closer to the capital of Islamabad.

Obama also will seek renewed commitment from Afghan President Hamid Karzai to better coordinate operations with Pakistan and the U.S., which will expand its military presence in Afghanistan under the president's revised war strategy against the Taliban.

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MINGORA, Pakistan --  Helicopter gunships and mortar teams pounded militant strongholds, killing dozens outside emerald mines, the military said, as Taliban reinforcements poured down from their mountain hide-outs and seized homes and government buildings.

The army began taking the fight to militants entrenched in both the Swat Valley and in Buner, just 60 miles from the capital, as Pakistan's leader prepared to hear demands from President Obama for forceful action from a struggling ally.

The latest actions will please Washington, which is urging Pakistan to crack down on militants blamed for rising violence at home and in Afghanistan.

It appears that just the 'thought' of receiving demands or requests from the Obama administration has already caused a quick reaction by the leadership in Pakistan.  Just imagine what President Obama will accomplish after actually 'talking' to them.

Go Obama!  Yes We Can!

I read on April 22nd, that the Governor had planned on raising the health insurance rates for state employees and retirees by 245% and if not stopped, the rule would take effect in 40 days.

For example, he would raise the rate from $89 a month to 309 per month on July 1.  For a retiree who is not yet old enough to qualify for Medicare, premiums would rise from $12.98 per month to an average of about $582 per month.

With a state budget due to be adopted within the next 40 days, the union has received no information regarding the proposal.

Just 26 days left.  I've heard nothing more about these plans of the governors.  Was the story a mistake or is it being overlooked and state workers are in for one hell of a surprise on July 1?

Thousands of people are fleeing the Swat Valley in northern Pakistan as a peace deal between the Government and Taliban militants in the region appears close to collapse.

A senior Pakistani official said residents in four towns in the restive Swat Valley had been ordered to evacuate because of heavy fighting...

Tension in Swat has steadily worsened over the past week after the army accused the Taliban of breaking the peace deal and of trying to take over neighbouring areas.

Question for the experts.  Is there a chance that since Pakistan and Afghanistan are allies of the U.S. and members of the United Nations that we would be inclined (or forced) to join forces with Pakistan and Afghanistan to fight the war against the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

Will the government of Pakistan be willing to 'let us in' if it meant saving their nation and keeping the enemy away from the nuclear weapons? 

Would we as a nation be willing to 'join forces' with Pakistan against the Taliban and Al Qaeda?

Are we already there, like we were in Vietnam before most Americans knew it?

Senator Chris Dodd of Connecticut, another Senator willing to follow our rule of laws gives Obama administration a few of his thoughts:

Sen. Chris Dodd took some noticeably hard shots at the White House in a recent interview with Connecticut bloggers, ridiculing the Obama officials who decided to release documents showing the Bush administration authorized torture without having the political will to follow up with an investigation or prosecution.

"I don't know who the genius was in the room that night when they were discussing this," the Connecticut Democrat said of the four torture documents declassified by the Obama White House. "But if you are going to make the decision to release the documents, I presume every one of us here would the have a follow up question, which is: Well, what are you going to do about it? And if the answer is nothing, we are just going to release the documents.... Some of us in the room would say, 'Well wait a minute, you have a problem. If you are going to release them then you are going to have to answer the next question, what are you going to do with them?'"

"I know people don't want to go back, because it is uncomfortable. The president has said I want to look forward," he said. "You know my father was a prosecutor at the Nuremberg trials. They were not a popular idea.... Nuremberg became a symbol of who we were. Even these thugs got a lawyer, even these thugs got a trial despite their acts. And so we became a symbol of jurisprudence and the rule of law."

"Not to prosecute people or pursue them when these acts occur is, in a sense, to invite them again," Dodd concluded.

Right On Senator!  Why are people willing to just ignore what WE allowed to happen during the past 7 years?  I just don't get it. 

Millions of Americans were all for impeaching President Bill Clinton for lying about having sex to the court system.  Millions wanted to impeach President Richard Nixon for having a part in the Watergate scandal.  Yet these same people seem to care less that we committed war crimes?  This is beyond comprehension.

I can almost understand why Democrats wouldn't want to do anything about these crimes for fear of angering people; but Conservatives and Republicans?"  They have always claimed to have better 'moral values' and belief in our 'rule of law' more than others -- so where are they?  I can't believe there isn't one Republican out there that is willing to stand up and say, "This was wrong!"

The Republican Party is supposedly trying to 'find itself' again.  They are looking for somebody that 'stands out' and leads the rest to victory in 2010.

I'm willing to make a bet that the first Republican that steps forward and says -- OK, it's time we stood up for America again and faced facts.  We may have committed war crimes and if so, those guilty should be prosecuted and punished."

Condi Rice's answer to a 4th grader's question about torture:"Let me just say that President Bush was very clear that he wanted to do everything he could to protect the country. After September 11, we wanted to protect the country," she said. "But he was also very clear that we would do nothing, nothing, that was against the law or against our obligations internationally. So the president was only willing to authorize policies that were legal in order to protect the country."

She added: "I hope you understand that it was a very difficult time. We were all so terrified of another attack on the country. September 11 was the worst day of my life in government, watching 3,000 Americans die. . . . Even under those most difficult circumstances, the president was not prepared to do something illegal, and I hope people understand that we were trying to protect the country."

Misha's mother, Inna Lerner, said the question her son had initially come up with was even tougher: "If you would work for Obama's administration, would you push for torture?"

"They wanted him to soften it and take out the word 'torture.' But the essence of it was the same," Lerner said.

Talking Points of the day: "We wanted to protect the country"

Bullwicky!

They are covering their rear ends now.  She's scared to death now that we now know that she was one of those that authorized torture under the order of the former president George W. Bush and that she may face a war crimes trial for doing so.

I would also point out how the 4th grader's school CENSORED the boy's question as though he had wanted to use curse words or something.  Shame on that school for playing politics with a KID.

I noted an article on the Reuters UK website by Steve Holland called, "Obama Revelling in U.S. Power - Unseen for DECADES".

Decades?  Give me a BREAK!

WASHINGTON (Reuters) - Barack Obama is revelling in presidential power and influence unseen in Washington for decades.

Barely 100 days in office, the U.S. president and his Democratic Party have firm control over the White House and Congress and the ability to push through ambitious plans.

Now, with the coming retirement of a Supreme Court justice clearing the way for him to appoint a successor, Obama already is assured a legacy at the top of all three branches of government -- executive, legislative and judicial.

On the corporate front, the federal government's pumping of billions of dollars in bailout money into banks and auto companies has given Obama the power to force an overhaul in those industries, a remarkable intervention in capitalist industries by the state.

Americans are giving him leeway as well. His job approval ratings are well over 60 percent, giving him political capital to undertake big challenges.

His political opponents, the Republicans, are in disarray, reduced in numbers and engaged in an internal struggle over how to recover from devastating election losses in 2006 and last year.

Mr. Holland, you are either completely blind or too stupid to read or listen to the news.

Where have you been since 1994 when Republicans took control of Congress and held it for nearly 12 years, or even since 2000 when the Bush administration, with the help of the Supreme Court, took control of our government, our airwaves and our privacy? 

We've just experienced the most power grabbing administration and political party in our history.  The Republican Party and the George W. Bush administration did nothing but demand power and authority over every American citizen and their civil rights.  Not to mention forcing(bribing) our allies into 'giving up' to their everyday cowboy demands since 9/11.

We continue to be in two wars, one in which was suppose to be a preemptive strike in fear of the "mushroom cloud" threat, that turned out to be a complete made up story, the other was ignored to push for the false pretense war and now we continue to have thousands of troops in both countries and our military is worn out.

Now you claim that President Barack Obama is revelling in power unseen for DECADES? 

If Obama has power it's because he is well liked and trusted.  He's been able to get things done - with the help of Americans - I might add.  In the beginning when the Bush administration took office, he too had POWER, especially after 9/11.  He and the Republican Party took advantage of the 'fears' of Americans to do the things they've always wanted to do - Have government control our lives and in our bedrooms.  They took American citizens and put them away for years without access to a court system.  They tortured our prisoners, so which were innocent.  Whether or not that citizen was guilty is not the point.  

Obama is a power grabber?  Mr. Holland, you really need to wake up and smell the roses.  You just missed the worst U.S.  'government control' in our lifetime.

I'd like to just add a quick comment about the Swine Flu panic that television media is spreading each and every half hour.  Enough already.  We know about it.  We've been warned about what happens and what has happened.  We've been told what to do or not to do. It's time to just give a once a week report in the local newspapers and QUIT TALKING ABOUT IT and showing videos of hundreds of people wearing surgical masks from fear of catching it on our televisions. 

Showing these scenes and discussing it each and every half hour is nonsense.  You are scaring people to death.

As we've been told by the officials, if caught quickly, 99.9% of everyone is surviving it just fine like any other flu.

STOP IT!  Stop talking about it.  There are more people dying in Iraq and Afghanistan in war or dying on the streets from hunger then from this FLU in the U.S. or even in Mexico.  Worry about 'them' --- please