Canadian TV Commentator Slams Obama for Keystone Debacle

Canadian television commentator and columnist Ezra Levant laid into Barack Obama for his recent rejection of the Keystone Pipeline project.

Here is Levant's great rant, on video,  about what he calls Obama's "Keystone cop-out."

Levant also wrote about it in the Calgary Sun on January 21. His column had the great headline, "Obama chose conflict Venezuelan oil over ethical Canuck oil, and movie stars over working men, women."

Here is an excerpt:

U.S. President Barack Obama made a choice last week: He chose Venezuela over Canada. That's what he did when he rejected the proposed Keystone XL pipeline that would have taken oilsands oil from Alberta to the Gulf Coast of Texas.

That pipeline would have delivered 700,000 barrels of oil every day from Canada (and from a new oilfield called Bakken that straddles the North Dakota-Saskatchewan border). Which is almost precisely the amount of oil Venezuela now ships to the United States, to those same refineries in Texas. With one fell swoop, Obama could have replaced conflict oil, from a belligerent, authoritarian OPEC regime, with ethical oil from Canada. But he didn't.  More at the Calgary Sun...

You can also read more at Levant's blog, which is cleverly called "Ezra Levant."

Related articles:

• Keystone Kibosh (www.sunnewsnetwork.ca)
• Hey Obama: If Keystone XL isn't approved, Canada will sell that oil to China (marathonpundit.blogspot.com)
• Congress plots new moves to sidestep Obama on Keystone pipeline (humanevents.com)
• WaPo: Obama's Keystone pipeline decision "an act of insanity" (directorblue.blogspot.com)
• Must watch video: Politics, pandering and killing the Keystone XL Pipeline! (politicsandfinance.blogspot.com)
• Canada Pledges to Sell Oil to Asia After Obama Rejects Keystone Pipeline... (truthsupport.wordpress.com)
• Obama administration rejects Keystone XL pipeline (humanevents.com)

Greeting Cards and a Timely Song for the Unemployed

Obama promised us jobs. Perhaps, indirectly and accidentally, Obama's devastating economic policies have created a few new jobs at Hallmark. The greeting card giant now offers eight job loss-related sympathy cards, plus 20 e-cards with generic sympathy messages. All 28 items come up in a search for "job loss" on Hallmark's website. In addition, the Burns & Poe band had to hire a film crew to record the video for their song "I Need A Job." At least one cameraman and a grip can thank Obama for that gig.

Euro Falls, Wall Street Drops as Spain, Italy Turn Backs on Greece

May 23, 2011 - As the Greek debt crisis continues to linger, one of Europe's other debt "PIGS" has shown the chutzpah to lecture Greece. Spain is one of the "PIGS" (Portugal, Ireland, Greece, Spain) that threaten to drag the euro and Europe into the slop of a worsening recession. Without drastic action, the PIGS of the eurozone seem doomed. The New York Times has a good article about the Greek economic tragedy today that says, "When Greece’s financial decision makers were summoned to secret talks at a Luxembourg castle by their euro zone partners this month, they knew a tongue-lashing was coming over the country’s stumbling reform efforts." Greece deserves that tongue-lashing, but the Times went on to note that, "What they did not expect was that it would be Spain and Italy, as opposed to Germany, that would take the lead in upbraiding Greece for not pushing faster on privatization and tax overhauls." Reuters-Africa reports that Wall Street's bad day today was due largely to fears over the fate of the sickly euro. Greece's credit rating was lowered by Fitch Ratings last Friday, which gave Wall Street an entire weekend of angst before they acted out today. None of this is helping investors' confidence. The Wall Street Journal reports today that stock market's volatility index "rose to its highest level in two months on Monday as investor concern over the worsening European debt crisis carried over to U.S. markets and drove stocks down."

Pat Quinn's Tax Holiday - Good Idea, Bad Execution

Ask most Democrats about lowering taxes to help the economy and they'll roll their eyes and tell you that taxes are good and everybody ("especially the rich") need to pay more. Ask most Democrat state legislators in Illinois why they don't lower taxes to help the economy and you'll get a similar reaction. And yet, yet... Sometimes a temporary burst of sanity hits a Democrat square between his eyes. Illinois Governor Quinn, for example, who is currently touting a "sales tax holiday." Clout Street (Chicago Tribune) reported this on August 6 (my emphasis added): Gov. Pat Quinn today defended his push for a back-to-school sales tax holiday despite the cost to a state government that's badly in the red. The governor predicted that waiving the 5 percent state sales tax will result in more revenue for the state because it will entice more shoppers into stores. Once there, those shoppers will spend on items such as electronics and sports equipment that aren't covered by the tax holiday. More at Clout Street.... Gov. Quinn is correct, of course, but his stand on this only highlights his - and his party's - contradictions about taxes and their effect. Look, this "back-to-school sales tax holiday" is temporary. Now, if Quinn thinks that lowering taxes will (a) result in more revenue for the state because (b) it will "entice more shoppers" to shop, why can't he - and his party - understand that a permanent sales tax cut would do the same thing but for a much, much longer period of time? Furthermore, if Quinn is so cocksure that this will encourage people to buy more back-to-school merchandise, why is it so difficult for him - and his party - to grasp the reality that lowering the sales tax on other merchandise would similarly boost consumer spending and, thereby, sales tax revenues? Note that, unlike Quinn, I speak of "lowering" the sales tax, not "waiving it." I acknowledge the need for some taxation, but the level at which Illinois (and Chicago and Cook County) tax people on just about everything is over the top. What Quinn admits is that lower taxes spur higher levels of consumer purchases. What he does understand is that lowering those taxes significantly would have the same effect, and boost the state's tax revenues even more than his plan would. In addition, why not lower the sales tax on the non-school items that Quinn referred to? Sure, the tax holiday on school items would increase shopping by parents with kids in school. But is Quinn - and his party - really so ignorant as to think that all of them will also "spend on items such as electronics and sports equipment that aren't covered by the tax holiday?" What about the many people in the market for those items who are not shopping for back-to-school items? What's to entice them to buy electronics, sports equipment or anything else in Illinois rather than crossing the border? Gov. Quinn has the right idea in theory, but his plan to execute it is completely wrong. The fastest way to generate more tax revenue for virtually bankrupt Illinois is to lower the sales tax on all items and services. Don't even get me started on the income tax and the myriad number of fees that Illinois imposes on people. As I wrote here on July 13, this may seem counterintuitive, but makes perfect sense: Lower the taxes and suddenly more people can afford to buy more things. From the sales tax on a pack of gum, a washing machine or a condominium, part of the cost is taxes. Your real income is less because it, too, is taxed. When you raise taxes, people have less disposable income. They buy less or go to a neighboring city, county or state where the sales taxes are lower, or move there because the income tax is friendlier. This is simple, basic economics. Any kid running a lemonade understands that higher prices - whether they're higher because of taxes or not - result in fewer sales.

Taxburgers and Fee Fries

Image via Wikipedia
by T.H. Mannis

I'll serve the burgers in a moment. First, let me say that taxes are sadly misunderstood by Democrats and their liberal-progressive sycophants. It's ironic that the Party of Higher Taxes is so ignorant about the effects and unintended consequences of taxation. It's been proven over and over that net tax revenues rise when taxation levels are lowered.

It's counterintuitive, but makes perfect sense: Lower the taxes and suddenly more people can afford to buy more things. From the sales tax on a pack of gum, a washing machine or a condominium, part of the cost is taxes. Your real income is less because it, too, is taxed. When you raise taxes, people have less disposable income. They buy less or go to a neighboring city, county or state where the sales taxes are lower, or move there because the income tax is friendlier. This is simple, basic economics. Any kid running a lemonade understands that higher prices result in fewer sales.

Still don't get it? Okay, then, let's get to the hamburgers.

Let's say there are two hamburger joints on the same block. Right Burgers and Lefty Burgers are directly across the street from each other. They serve equally delicious burgers and fries, and their menus are identical. Both restaurants are clean and pleasant. Their prices are identical. Both, for example, charge $4.00 for a cheeseburger. Regular customers like both burger joints, and so each gets an equal share of the local lunch business. There's trouble on the horizon, however...

Image via Wikipedia

One day, the owner of Lefty Burgers decides that he can make more money if he raises the price of his burgers. He rewrites his menu with new pricing, and will now charge $5.00 for a cheeseburger. All of his other prices are raised, too. As he puts his new menu out, he smiles to himself in anticipation of higher revenues.

Lefty Burgers does make more money - temporarily. The owner is happy, but soon more and more people become aware of his higher burger price. Once-loyal customers stop coming in, realizing that the same burger is still available across the street, for less money, at Right Burgers. After two weeks, Lefty Burgers has lost all of its regular customers to Right Burgers. The only business he gets now is the occasional person passing through the neighborhood. Each burger joint used to sell about 200 cheeseburgers each per day.

Suddenly, however, Right Burgers is selling around 380 cheeseburgers per day and Lefty Burgers is selling about 20 per day. The result: Lefty Burgers is making less money, even though its prices are higher. Lefty Burgers lays of three of his six employees. Realizing that he's making less money than before, Lefty decides to raise his prices yet again. After all, shouldn't charging more result in higher revenues?

Right Burgers, fully aware of the situation, decides to put a big new sign out front advertising his newly lowered prices. A month later, Lefty Burgers lays off his remaining three employees and files for bankruptcy. Right Burgers hires all six former Lefty employees and makes plans to remodel and add a new patio.

This is how taxation works, too. If you can cross the county line or state line and get the same burger - or cigarettes, automobile, lawn mower, or anything else - for less money, you do. If you can get the same lifestyle in another county or state for less money, you will do. If you can hold your convention in another city, county or state for less money, you will. If you can open a business in another state for less money, you will. And so on.

Democrats, generally, just don't understand this simple reality. Geniuses like Illinois Governor Pat Quinn, and his fellow Democrats in the state legislature, look at the budgetary situation in the same way that Lefty Burgers looked at his and act in the same way.

It's no wonder, then, that more people are deciding to get their proverbial cheeseburgers in a state other than Illinois. Pat Quinn and Company are engaging in actions that will soon cause this state to file for bankruptcy unless action is taken. They show no willingness to take that action. You ask what that action is? Lower all taxes across the board in Illinois. They won't, however, because ideology and myth always trumps reality for Democrats, liberals and progressives. Don't ask them for fries with that cheeseburger. They'll charge you extra.

Copyright 2010 T.H.Mannis - All Rights Reserved

Economic Stimulus Payment Defined

This is going around the Internet. Subject: Economic Stimulus Payment (ESP) defined... This year, taxpayers received an Economic Stimulus Payment. For those of you who still don't understand the purpose of the ESP, here is an explanation of it using the Q and A format: Q. What is an Economic Stimulus Payment? A. It is money that the federal government will send to taxpayers. Q. Where will the government get this money? A. From taxpayers. Q. So the government is giving me back my own money? A. Only a smidgen. Q. What is the purpose of this payment? A. The plan is that you will use the money to purchase a high-definition TV set, thus stimulating the economy. Q. But isn't that stimulating the economy of China ? A. Shut up. Below is some helpful advice on how to best help the US economy by spending your stimulus check wisely: If you spend that money at Wal-Mart, all the money will go to China. If you spend it on gasoline it will go to the Arabs. If you purchase a computer it will go to India. If you purchase fruit and vegetables it will go to Chile, Mexico , Honduras , and Guatemala. If you buy a car it will go to Japan. If you purchase useless crap it will go to Taiwan. And none of it will help the American economy. We need to keep that money here in America! You can keep the money in America by spending it at yard sales, going to a baseball game, or spend it on prostitutes, beer or tattoos, since those are the only businesses still in the U.S. See Comments... Visit Our Online Store Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter

Time Bomb in Washington. Tick. Tick. Tick...

With trillions of dollars in debt piling up under the "guidance" of the Obama Regime and its economic "advisors," the United States comes closer every minute to complete economic meltdown. The U.S. debt is larger now than ever, and we have not yet begun to see the unavoidable effects of the coming catastrophe it will bring. It is one of the great ironies of history that the Obama "stimulus" is actually doing just the opposite. The same people who screamed about the obscene spending on the Iraq War are now gleefully spending far, far more than all of the Iraq War spending totalled up. The irony is rich, if less than enjoyable. The U.S. Congress has become like an amphetamine addict; the initial dose makes him feel better, more energetic and more able to carry on. But that dose slow him down when the drug wears off and the euphoria loses its glow. Then he's in big trouble. Sooner or later, the Obama stimulus dose will wear off, and we will be in a world of pain. Like that addict, there is no escape from the inevitable downer. Unlike that addict, the Congress seems eager to overdose. Robert Romano wrote a brilliant summary of the bad situation we've allowed our politicians to get us into. Romano is the Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau and wrote this on GetLiberty.org on May 28: Last week, Moody’s downgraded Japan’s sovereign credit rating from AAA to AA2. The UK suffered a similar fate from Standard & Poor’s as the medium-term outlook on her Majesty’s debt was lowered from “stable” to “negative.” (Note: "Sovereign debt" is a debt instrument that is guaranteed by a government.) That's worrisome enough. Japan and the United Kingdom are/were strong trading partners of the United States. They are both economic engines that help drive the world economy. Neither of them is nearly as big as the U.S., however, and the U.S. is about to lose its AAA rating too. Amid the ensuing economic and political fallout, now all eyes are turning to the largest sovereign debt in the world. Ever. It is held by the United States government. And, it is a ticking time bomb. With every vote congressmen make to plunge the nation deeper into debt—now more than $11.3 trillion (and growing)—the clock draws closer to zero. Even Barack Obama has to admit that it is “unsustainable,” although in the same breath he proposes another trillion dollar bailout or a vast expansion of the government health care monstrosity. DeRoy Murdoch of the Scripps Howard News Service, offers his take on the U.S. federal spending orgy and it's alleged attempt to "stimulate" the economy. He wrote this on May 28: While Obama is refreshingly realistic, he resembles a man who strolls into a bar, sees that his wallet is empty, and then slaps a round of drinks for everyone onto his wheezing credit card. Rather than use America's rapidly deteriorating public finances to restore fiscal discipline after G.W Bush's deplorable spend-o-rama, Obama is digging America into a deeper hole -- not with a shovel, but with a backhoe. If he continues, the ensuing canyon walls will collapse and crush us. Look how spectacularly Washington squanders your money:... (More at Scripps Howard...) "Stimulus?" I think not. But is it panic time yet? I think not, not quite yet. Today we see headlines that seem reassuring. One, for example, is "US government debt to keep top rating, Moody's says." That's nice, but it doesn't take into account the severe crisis that other nations are going through. Remember that the Great Depression in the United States dragged the rest of the world down. This time around, it may be the other way around. Like that addict I alluded to earlier, we may be basking in the warm glow of a temporary dose-induced high. But all around us, fellow addicts are jittery, and jittery addicts desperate for that next high can be very dangerous. RELATED: Stocks, Treasuries Tumble - msnbc.com Murdock: America is broke - Scripps News Europe Battles a Deep Recession - eGov monitor Tax Revenue Plunges as Obama Deficit Soars - NewsMax.com Euro falls despite positive eurozone data -AFP Drop Deepens On Wall Street - Forbes US Credit Rating Not Under Immediate Threat - Wall Street Journal Tumbling towards a sovereign debt crisis? - Edmund Conway - The Telegraph UK Choking on Debt in the Unfolding Anglo-Saxon Bond Crisis - Daily Reckoning World stocks, bonds fall on sovereign debt fears - Reuters Leave a Comment Here... See our cool merchandise... Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Hey! ChiNewsBench is on Twitter

God Bless Daniel Hannan, MEP

In this video, member of the European Parliament Daniel Hannan blasts British PM Gordon Brown to his face, saying that he's "pathological" and bluntly states that Brown's economic policies are destroying the UK. Within minutes of that speech on March 25, Hannan became a worldwide Internet sensation and hero to millions who oppose the growing trend of liberal fascism and insane government policies. 

Daniel Hannan is a Conservative MEP for the South East of England and author of The Plan: Twelve Months to Renew Britain. 

Note to members of the US Congress: Grow some spine and take a lesson from this guy, who knows how challenge authority and call bullshit out for what it is. When will a Republican stand up in Congress and give a speech like this about Obama's insane policies, which are remarkably similar to those of Gordon Brown? 

Dr. Thomas Sowell on Welfare (Video)

Stop subsidizing lowered expectations, says the highly respected Thomas Sowell. This powerful video (below) was made in 1980, when Sowell debated welfare with then-Pennsylvania Secretary of Welfare, Helen O'Banion. Sowell is a senior fellow at the Hoover Institution, Stanford University (see his website). His words are still relevant today. You can see more videos of Thomas Sowell at YouTube. Chicago News Bench RSS Feed Cool Stuff...

Rick Santelli Fomenting Second American Revolution

CHICAGO TEA PARTYFRIDAY FEB 27, 11:00 A.M. Start: Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington End: Michigan Ave Bridge (Tribune Tower) NOT IN CHICAGO? THIS IS A NATIONWIDE EVENT! CLICK FOR TEA PARTIES IN OTHER CITIES THIS FRIDAY ************************************************************* Obama's revolution of false "change" started in Chicago. The counter revolution may well be starting here. CNBC On-Air Editor Rick Santelli Rick Santelli may be listed alongside Sam Adams, Ben Franklin and George Clinton when historians are finished analyzing the fomenting Second American Revolution. Update 2/19/2009: Rick Santelli was on Kudlow tonight and said there definitely will be a Tea Party in Chicago in July. (Source: The Chicago Tea Party blog) Traders Revolt - Chicago Tea Party [CNBC Video] Rick Santelli’s Chicago Tea Party Free Market Review: Rick Santelli Calls for Chicago Tea Party Rick Santelli Bashes Obama Mortgage Rescue Package ... SANTELLI'S CHICAGO TEA PARTY - The Market Ticker Rick Santelli: Chicago Tea Party in July CNBC's Rick Santelli Rants, Calls For "Chicago Tea Party" The Pulse of Revolution Has Begun CNBC's Santelli Explains His Anti-Obamanomics Call for Revolt Rick Santelli Sounds the Alarm on Stimulus CNB RSS Feed

This Revolution Is Being Televised (Updated)

CHICAGO TEA PARTYFRIDAY, FEB 27, NOON Start: Daley Plaza, 50 W. Washington End: Michigan Ave Bridge (Tribune Tower) NOT IN CHICAGO? THIS IS A NATIONWIDE EVENT! CLICK FOR TEA PARTIES IN OTHER CITIES THIS FRIDAY 

Update 2/19/2009: THIS MAY BE THE MOST IMPORTANT VIDEO OF THE 21ST CENTURY. That's no exaggeration. Rick Santelli was on Kudlow tonight and said there definitely will be a Tea Party in Chicago in July. (Source: The Chicago Tea Party blog) 

If you know your history, you know that large revolutions have often started with seemingly small speeches or seemingly insignificant acts. Rick Santelli's defiant speech on the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade today (full transcript) may be one of those watershed moments that get huge word of mouth. WATCH IT HERE:

They inspire people to organize, to write to their representatives, to march, to rally, and sometimes... To go into full revolutionary mode. We're not talking street marches or gatherings in parks. 

WE'RE TALKING ABOUT STORMING THE GATES, PEOPLE. King Barack Hussein Obama has been on the thrown for a month. Already, his subjects are restless. Very, very restless. If you have not seen this video (below), you must watch it now. 

• Rick Santelli's Anti-Obama "Rant Heard Around the World" 
• Chicago Tea Party blog 
• The Pulse of Revolution Has Begun 
• Rick Santelli Speaks for the Silent Majority 
• CNBC's Santelli Explains His Anti-Obamanomics Call for Revolt 
• CNBC's Santelli incites traders in Chicago, calls for a 'tea party' 

Obama, Neo-Fascist

Is Obama a socialist? Yes, in some ways, but Michael Ledeen contends he's really more of a fascist. Not "Nazi." Fascist. There's a huge difference, and without getting into a long lesson in economic theory or modern history, suffice it to say that fascism and socialism both are economic systems. Like capitalism, there are many variations possible with each. Like socialism (and its more serious sibling communism), fascism can be mixed with genocidal tendencies, but neither genocide nor fascism nor socialism/communism are mutually dependent. Non-murderous socialist states and non-murderous fascist states are entirely possible.

If classical liberalism spells individualism, Fascism spells government.
Benito Mussolini

Unfortunately, we've seen the horrors when fascism and socialism are carried to extremes, as with Hilter's Third Reich and Stalin's Soviet Union. Socialist Stalin, by the way, imprisoned and killed far more people than did fascist Hitler. Some numbers: 61,911,000 Murdered: The Soviet Gulag State 35,236,000 Murdered: The Communist Chinese 20,946,000 Murdered: The Nazi Genocide State (Soucre; also see here)

I am a Socialist, and a very different kind of Socialist from your rich friend, Count Reventlow. ... What you understand by Socialism is nothing more than Marxism. Adolf Hitler, spoken to Otto Strasser, Berlin, May 21, 1930

No, we're not calling any Democrats "Nazis." Ledeen explains himself at Pajamas Media. There, on Feb. 12, he wrote "We Are All Fascists Now" (his response to Newsweeks' "We Are All Socialists Now"). Here is an excerpt from Ledeen's column: What is happening now–and Newsweek is honest enough to say so down in the body of the article–is an expansion of the state’s role, an increase in public/private joint ventures and partnerships, and much more state regulation of business. Yes, it’s very “European,” and some of the Europeans even call it “social democracy,” but it isn’t. It’s fascism. Nobody calls it by its proper name, for two basic reasons: first, because “fascism” has long since lost its actual, historical, content; it’s been a pure epithet for many decades. Lots of the people writing about current events like what Obama et. al. are doing, and wouldn’t want to stigmatize it with that “f” epithet. One of the great ironies of modern political "debate" is the unthinking, knee-jerk tendency of "liberals" to throw the word "fascist" at their opponents. If they knew what they were saying, if they understood history and economic theory, those liberals would not call their pro-market, pro-individualism, pro-self reliance opponents "fascists." If they knew better, they would understand that it's like the pot calling the china black. RELATED: Nationalism has its roots in socialism as well as fascism Fascism and Communism/Socialism: Ayn Rand Lexicon The Socialism and Fascism of the New Deal We’ve got fascism, not socialism: Times Argus Online Fascism's Legacy: Liberalism - Daniel Pipes It's Ayn Rand's World, We Just Live In It The Future Did Not Work - 00.03 USSR--Genocide and Mass Murder Roots of fascism CNB RSS Feed

Junkies on Stimulus

David R. Stokes has the best quote I've seen so far regarding the recently passed "Stimulus." He posted it at the Lux Libertas blog: I think all the talk of “doom and gloom” is not misguided; it’s misdirected. A catastrophe will not result from a failure to inject a trillion dollars of government spending into a struggling economy. The thing we should really fear is the fallout from a toxic overdose of federal dollars. If our economy actually survives the euphoric rush of a stimulus-driven high, it will just be a matter of time before an emerging majority of strung out neo-socialist junkies will be clamoring for another fix. Full Post at Lux Libertas... While you're over there, be sure to read Unstimulated by Salena Zito. CNB RSS Feed

Obama's Failure to Stimulate

Ruberry has a killer post today. He highlights Obama's lack of real leadership skills, notes that polling finds a hell of a lot of Americans are disenchanted with the One, and that Doctor Changelove is not really the messiah after all. It is perhaps appropriate, at this point, to wish a happy 98th birthday to the late President Ronald W. Reagan. Compared to him, Obama is but a neophyte. Obama won the presidency by a large but not overwhelming majority. Over the last two years, Obama has been sounding the drum of "Change...change...change," without specifics. Now is the time for specificity, and Obama doesn't know what to do--except "something." So he farmed out his stimulus plan to the House Appropriations Committee, who packed the bill with items from liberal wish-list compiled since Lyndon Johnson left the White House. FULL POST at MARATHON PUNDIT... CNB RSS Feed

Pelosi: 500 Million Will Lose Jobs

Nancy Pelosi (D-CA) is the Speaker of the House of Representatives. She's a member of Congress. She's also an idiot, as the video here proves. In a press conference, she spoke about the so-called "stimulus" legislation, and she made an astounding remark:

“Every month that we do not have an economic recovery package, 500 million Americans lose their jobs.”

Imagine the reaction if a Republican said that. Someone should really point out to Ms. Pelosi that the United States has a population of slightly more than 300 million. Even if every adult and every child was employed, not enough of them could lose their jobs to total 500 million. Perhaps the additional 200 million people reside in those seven new states that Barack Obama said he visited during the election. Pelosi's remark, which she did not pause to correct, was amazing enough, but just as amazing was the complete lack of response to it by the reporters in the room. Nobody said, "Madam Speaker, we only have 300 million people in America. How could 500 million people possibly lose their jobs here?" It is also noteworthy that Pelosi called it "an economic recovery package," not "economic stimulus package." A Freudian admission that the package won't stimulate much of anything? Watch the video below! (Hat tip to RedState.com) CNB RSS Feed

BRITISH PM: CUT TAXES NOW!

Gordon Brown, the recently re-elected British Prime Minister, is urging the world's wealthiest nations to immediately cut taxes. Sure, Brown's a Labour guy, a liberal. But Brown has some good common sense and an awareness of reality. Let's hope his message is not shunned by the tax-and-spend Democrats (and Republicans) in the United States. From the Guardian tonight: Gordon Brown tonight called on the world's most powerful industrial nations to agree a programme of immediate and coordinated tax cuts to prevent the global economy sliding deeper into recession. (Too bad Brown didn't make this speech to the idiots in Michigan, a gang of Democrats who have spent decades destroying the state's economy with higher and higher taxes. Too bad Todd "The Stoopid" Stroger, Cook County's president, will not be able to comprehend Brown's message of common sense.) The Guardian's report continues: Arriving in New York for this weekend's unprecedented gathering of the leaders of the world's leading 20 economies, the prime minister said the need for a "fiscal stimulus" both for the UK economy and the world had increased after an autumn in which accelerating job losses had intensified fears of a deep and lasting slump. Full Story at Guardian.co.uk: Brown: major countries must cut taxes now...

FLASH: HUGE WIN FOR LABOUR IN UK: BROWN'S BIG VICTORY

BREAKING NEWS: Our cousins across the pond had a huge national election this week, too, and the big winner was Gordon Brown, who retains his position as Prime Minister. It was a surprise to many observers. The United Kingdom has been suffering much more than the US in the current crisis, and Brown "may be willing to follow the cuts in interest rates by sanctioning tax reductions in the UK, as part of an internationally coordinated effort to give world economies a boost," according the Guardian UK. This will probably set an example that the rest of Europe, and perhaps the Obama Administration in the US., will follow. Labour pulled off a stunning...victory in the early hours of this morning, defying predictions to retain the once safe Labour seat of Glenrothes in the first indication that Gordon Brown's heightened international standing and handling of the financial crisis has translated into improved electoral fortunes. (Guardian UK) Brown's Labour Party managed to energize voters and get them to the polls: "I saw people coming out to vote for Labour who haven't voted for 20 years. I need to think about that," said Tricia Marwick, the SNP MSP who won the equivalent Scottish parliament seat of Central Fife from Labour last year. (Guardian UK) The victory and the scope of the voter turnout were a surprise even to the insiders: The scale of the win, however, took everyone, including Labour strategists, by surprise. It marks an abrupt end to Alex Salmond’s honeymoon as Scotland’s First Minister and a thumping personal endorsement for Mr Brown. Holding the seat that Labour won with a 10,664 majority in 2005 meant that Mr Brown’s decision to break with tradition and campaign in the contest — along with his wife, Sarah, who made several visits — paid off. (TimesOnline.UK)

OBAMA'S PROMISE: YOU'LL PAY MORE FOR ELECTRICITY IF I AM ELECTED

Barack Obama told the San Francisco Chronicle that his energy policies include bankrupting the coal industry, from which the US gets huge portions of its energy. If Obama is able to, his policies would limit coal-fired electric plants, thus raising your heating bills, your light bills; your overall energy bills will skyrocket. Thousands of people in the energy industry would be put out of work. Listen to Barack Obama, in his own words, in the startling interview audio (below). From the interview: "Luh-luh-luh-luh-luh-luh-luh-luh-let me sort of describe my overall policy," Obama the Great Orator stammered, "So if somebody wants to build a coal-powered plant, they can; it's just that it will bankrupt them because they're going to be charged a huge sum for all that greenhouse gas that's being emitted." Obama actually admits that policies will force you to pay much, much higher rates for your electricity: “You know, when I was asked earlier about the issue of coal, you know — under my plan of a cap and trade system, electricity rates would necessarily skyrocket. Even regardless of what I say about whether coal is good or bad. Because I’m capping greenhouse gases, coal power plants, you know, natural gas, you name it — whatever the plants were, whatever the industry was, they would have to retrofit their operations. That will cost money. They will pass that money on to consumers.” More from Albany Democrat Herald, OR: Editorial - Our future for decades: Brrr! More from WSAZ-TV, WV: Obama Called Out for Comments about Bankrupting Coal Industry More from NewsBusters: Obama: Energy Prices Will Skyrocket More from NewsBusters: Hidden Audio: Obama Tells SF Chronicle He Will Bankrupt Coal Industry) More from Death by 1000 Paper Cuts: Obama and Coal: Obama Admits His Policies Will “Bankrupt” Coal ... More from Fox News: Palin Goes After Obama on Coal Comments More from the Washington Times: Calls Slam Obama in Coal Country More from Canada Free Press: Obama Bankrupting Coal Industry More from PoliGazette, Netherlands: Obama: I’ll Cause Energy Prices to Skyrocket