On the political front there were primaries and two special elections. The anti-incumbents won in Kentucky and Pennsylvania sending a signal to both Democrat and Republican parties. Then in the special elections a far more conservative Democrat than the moderate Republican won in Pennsylvania and a far more conservative Republican than two Democrats won in Hawaii. For the week the real winners were the conservative public, especially united in their opposition to the Obama and Democrats madcap spending addiction and total disregard for the spiraling federal deficit.
Also in politics Rand Paul, Kentucky Tea Party winner, naively mistook victory for a honeymoon with the press and found out just how deep and devious the venom of left wing media can be when he made his first appearances on the radical left PBS and MSNBC bastions. By weeks end someone finally took Rand to the woodshed for a little education in surviving with the sharks of the elite media.
Our self-proclaimed transparent president Barack Obama knows all about media and how fast they can turn on you and has been doing a good job of manipulating them. You would never know it, but Obama has not had an open news conference, one in which the media can ask about anything, since last July. Even George Bush held open news conferences twice a month throughout his eight year term. Obama has gone 10 months with no open news conference.
On the pollution front the BP oil spill has been partly stopped, and an effort to seal it will be made in the next couple of days. No one knows how many thousands of barrels have already escaped or how far it will be spread. There are predictions for catastrophic damage and losses, much from the seemingly thousands of lawyers lined up to sue everyone for damages which will line the pockets of the lawyers but do little to help the local economy.
The Obama administration may wind up being one of the biggest losers in this disaster because they were too busy playing politics to make sure their own regulatory agencies did their regulating. Yes there were problems with the technology, with the equipment and with the procedures, but there were also problems with the Obama people who have had nearly a year and a half to investigate their regulatory agencies and make sure all safety and equipment inspections take place. If the regulators were too cozy with the oil industry it was Obama's fault, they reported to him.
On the financial front we teetered on the brink of disaster over the European crisis and are far from out of it yet. After the shocking stock collapse the week before we got a report from Obama's SEC and other agencies saying it will take several more weeks to repair the regulatory flaws before they are sure the crash of 1000 Dow points in minutes won't happen again. No that is not very reassuring. Why don't they just declare an emergency and fix the damn mess?
Also on the financial front the Senate approved a version of the financial reform act, now it goes to a conference with the House and final action is expected by July. That means it took Congress three years since the housing meltdown and two years since the banking meltdown to start to fix the problems. It also means it will have taken President Obama and his Calvary of change agents about 18 months to come up with a fix for the economy. If that is rapid response by the president and the Democrats controlling Congress we are in very serious trouble.
When the bill goes to conference with the House it still contains some derivative language the banks hate and still makes no mention of the housing crisis which triggered the collapse of the economy. Rumor has it that no Democrat in Congress has the guts to say the strict derivative language should be dropped to satisfy the big bankers who financed the campaigns of Obama and the Congress. So watch to see if Obama, who has tried to paint a picture of himself as champion of the bank bashers, is not the one to request the derivative language be modified in order to protect the Democrats up for re-election.
If you doubt his claim as the champion bank basher just look at this letter I got from him this week. It came from the barackobama.com committee:
Jim --
On Thursday, the Senate passed historic Wall Street reform. This movement proved again that the strongest special interests, who for so long have called the shots in Washington, can be beat.
When opponents in Congress tried to block the legislation altogether, you stood up -- and they backed down. When the lobbyists pushed for loopholes and exemptions just before a final vote, you did not relent -- and we fought them off.
Your support brought us to this day -- and, because of that, we're poised to implement sensible reforms that will provide a stronger foundation for economic growth.
Now, the House and Senate must iron out their differences before I can sign it into law. But the financial industry will not give up. They have already spent more than $1 million per member of Congress, lobbying on this issue. And in the coming days, they will go all in. This is their last shot to stall, weaken, or kill reform, and they are not accustomed to losing.
But this movement has you -- and together, we have beaten the special interests before.
Please donate $5 or more today to help Organizing for America continue to mobilize thousands -- to counter the special interests' attacks and get strong Wall Street reform to my desk.
Every American has a stake in this bill.
If you have ever been treated unfairly by a credit card company, this reform works for you -- never again will Americans be duped by fine print or hidden fees.
If you ever try to take out a home loan or student loan, this reform works for you -- putting an end to predatory and deceptive lending practices.
And, if you or your small business relies on credit from community banks that are being punished for playing by the rules while their competitors do not, this reform works for you -- reining in the big banks and making sure all our lenders are subject to tough oversight.
These reforms would put in place the strongest consumer financial protections in history. And, by helping safeguard our economy from recklessness on Wall Street, it would ensure that a crisis like the one that caused this recession never happens again.
This is not a zero-sum game where Wall Street loses and Main Street wins. As we have learned, in today's economy, we are all connected. When the economy prospers, we all win. Senators of both parties recognize that fact, and that is why lawmakers stood up to the lobbyists and worked across the aisle to ensure that Wall Street reform passed.
But this fight is not yet over. And it is up to us to overcome this final test and pass reform into law. When we do, the power of this movement to make change in Washington -- despite the best efforts of the special interests -- will no longer be up for debate.
Please donate $5 or more today:
https://donate.barackobama.com/WSRSenateVictory
Thank you,
President Barack Obama
If Obama makes any move to change the reform legislation and water down the derivatives section he is a total hypocrite. Besides, aren't all lobbyist committees required to be registered lobbyists? If Obama can have a committee directly lobbying for a bill and raising millions of dollars to do it aren't they a lobbyist and special interest too? Yes we are back into the silly season.
As for pollution, BP is still struggling to clean up the spill and seal off the leak. Congressional hearings have already pointed out flaws in the regulatory process by the Obama people for not doing safety inspections and in the oil industry for not solving all safety problems, testing new technology and not having a plan for such a disaster.
While the leak will get sealed at some point, the clean up of oil already leaked is the source of much wild speculation and certain to be the target of multi-billion dollar damage suits by every lawyer who is part of the number one contributor to the Obama campaign and the Democrats running Congress. At least the unemployment rate for lawyers is sure to go down.
As for speculation about how serious the spill will be, I have my on speculation to throw in the mixing pot. We all know that oil leaking into the ocean is a normal thing and there are microbes in the ocean that feed off the oil. Normally there is not this much oil for feeding the microbes. So I predict that with hurricane season a week away there will be tropical storms and hurricanes that hit the gulf.
All the surface oil will most likely reduce the destruction by the storms because they have to move across heavy water with all the oil in it. However, the churning seas will widely disperse and break up the concentrations of oil in the gulf. The natural process will enable the microbes to attack the oil residue much more aggressively. At the same time the turbulence of the gulf and the massive volume of water thrown onto the shores by the hurricanes will help clean up the shore and wetlands that have been contaminated with oil.
The liberal media have said it will take many billions of dollars and more than a decade to clean up the mess. I say with the help of Mother Nature and/or Divine Intervention because of all the prayers being offered for help, the damage and length of time to recover could be far less. Sometimes it takes supernatural action to clean up the mess of men.
On the immigration front the liberals continue to bellow like stuck pigs about the Arizona law that has been significantly modified since original passage. Neither Obama nor the Democratic leadership in Congress will admit that Arizona was forced to act because Congress and the president decided it was too risky to push immigration reform with the November elections. That sounds more like backroom politics than leadership.
Of course the California liberals have followed suit and are trying to adopt restrictions in travel to Arizona to penalize the Arizona people. That sounds more like an action you would find in Soviet Russia than America. How can a state adopt any action that grossly discriminates against another state and ignores the fact the Congress and president failed to do their job? Only the liberals can figure out such bizarre strategies. And yes, as I said in an earlier article, Arizona has now threatened to shut off the electricity to California if they discriminate as they threatened. More than 25% of Los Angeles electricity comes from across the border in Arizona.
Top of all this activity off with the fact that Obama, after running around the country holding a series of press opportunities to boast of how the economy has turned around thanks to his trillion dollar deficit spending, watched helplessly as the stock market lost more value than any week since the economic crash. Of course Obama was just staying away from Washington for the week because of the election losses and mismanagement of the oil spill but he still claimed credit for fixing things prematurely, a fitting exclamation point on how little he still understands his job.
Let's see, Europe is on the brink of economic disaster, the national debt exceeds $13trillion, North Korea is charged with sinking a South Korean ship, Iran cuts nuclear deals as Obama tries to shut them down in the UN, the death toll of American military in Afghanistan passes 1,000, the stock market falls the most since the crash, oil continues spilling in the Gulf, financial reform moves forward as immigration reform moves backward, and the only thing PBS, MSNBC, NBC and ABC can ask Rand Paul is about the 1964 Civil Rights Act passed by Lyndon Johnson. Now what is wrong with this picture?
.
