Obama administration’s overreaching has hit epic proportions

If you’ve entertained sporadic thoughts that our nation is sliding into a Communist abyss, this might just seal the deal for you.

Byron York writes that U.S. Rep. Barney Frank’s House Financial Services committee has passed a bill giving Treasury Secretary and tax cheat Tim Geithner extensive control over salaries of employees working at companies receiving government bailout funds.

The measure is not limited just to those firms that received the largest sums of money, or just to the top 25 or 50 executives of those companies. It applies to all employees of all companies involved, for as long as the government is invested. And it would not only apply going forward, but also retroactively to existing contracts and pay arrangements of institutions that have already received funds.

In addition, the bill gives Geithner the authority to decide what pay is “unreasonable” or “excessive.” And it directs the Treasury Department to come up with a method to evaluate “the performance of the individual executive or employee to whom the payment relates.”

Be afraid. Be very afraid.

Advertisement

So we want to emulate the Canadian Health care plan, eh?

This article in the New York Post written by Cory Franklin, M.D., raises new questions regarding the tragic death of 45-year-old actress Natasha Richardson at a Canadian ski resort. Dr. Franklin ponders the vast differences between the Canadian and U.S. health care delivery systems, including the lack of helicopter services to trauma centers, which would have facilitated urgent care in a more timely manner. His article raises the question whether Richardson could have survived her head injury had the accident occurred in the United States. CAT Scan and MRI equipment were oddly missing at the local hospital.

The Globe and Mail released the 911 transcripts which reveal the lost time — from the ambulance dispatch to Ms. Richardson’s hotel room and her arrival at the hospital, during which critical hours elapsed. Experts say a medical helicopter, which can make the trip from Mont Tremblant to Sacré-Coeur in less than 30 minutes, might have saved her life.

For an eye-opening introduction to the cost benefit analysis, governmental control and rationing of care that undergirds the Canadian health care system, read this article in the Tucson Citizen — also posted on the Americans for Prosperity website.

‘Gitmo’ prisoners must think we’re nuts

President Obama’s intelligence chief has confirmed that some Guantanamo inmates may be released on U.S. soil and receive assistance to return to society.

“If we are to release them in the United States, we need some sort of assistance for them to start a new life,” said National Intelligence Director Dennis Blair at his first press conference.

“You can’t just put them on the street,” he added. “All that is work in progress.”

World News Australia reports the Obama administration is currently evaluating what could be done with the prisoners. But Blair pledged that if they are sent to another country, “we have to be sure that that country will treat them in a humane fashion.”

Sure….kind’a like they treated our American soldiers.

Yet another lawsuit is filed against the state over budget

The First Things First early childhood education board filed a lawsuit with the Arizona Supreme Court yesterday to block the state from removing $7 million from a fund created by Arizona voters in 2006 under the provisions of Proposition 203.

Defendants in the special action are Gov. Jan Brewer, state Treasurer Dean Martin and state Comptroller D. Clark Partridge. The suit comes a couple of months after state officials, as part of a $1.6 billion budget fix for fiscal 2009, targeted $7 million in interest accruing from a First Things First account. The budget plan moved those dollars into the state general fund.

The daily has the full report here.

Phoenix Mayor Gordon and wife have “grown apart,” file for divorce

The daily reports that after a 15-year marriage and a year-long separation, Phoenix Mayor Phil Gordon, 57, and his wife, Christa Severns, 45,  filed for divorce today.

Last November, in response to an inane Republic puff piece titled Flashy Gordon, (which even included tips on how to achieve his hip and trendy look) we noted that he was sprucing up his former disheveled appearance.

The newspaper likened Gordon to what reporter Jaimee Rose gushingly called “San Francisco’s heartthrob Mayor Gavin Newsom.”

Newsom and Gordon do have one thing in common. Both mayors preside over sanctuary cities —  catering to illegal aliens.

Today’s target: Detroit — as GM head forced out by Obama

In a stunning move for a U.S. President, Barack Obama — via his auto task force — has forced the ouster of Rick Wagoner, 56, the CEO of General Motors, who had been at the helm of the automaker for eight years. His career with the company spanned 32 years.

As recently as March 19^th, Wagoner vowed: “I plan to stay here until we get things well in shape and on track.”

The Obama administration threatened to withhold bailout money from the company unless Wagoner left.

According to a report in The Hill, Democrat Carl Levin, Michigan’s senior senator, said the move was put into action minus any congressional input.

Obama’s illegal alien aunt gets private deportation hearing on April Fool’s Day

The nation’s immigration courts are reportedly so clogged that nearly 90,000 people accused of being in the United States illegally waited at least two years for a judge to decide whether they must leave — among the bottlenecks in the drive to more strictly enforce immigration laws. One of those cases involves President Barack Obama’s illegal immigrant aunt.

Seeing Red AZ has previously reported on Barack Obama’s Aunt Zeituni Onyango, a Kenyan native, living on the public dole in taxpayer subsidized housing in Boston. That was November 1, 2008.

Her upcoming April 1, deportation hearing will be closed to the public. Onyango was previously ordered deported in 2004, and disregarded the order. After the buzz about her caused discomfort during Obama’s presidential campaign last fall, she did what any concerned aunt would do under the circumstances — she fled Boston to stay with relatives in Cleveland. Now she is back in the comfort of her Boston public housing.

The Cleveland Plain Dealer, covering the Washington D.C. inaugural events reported: One special guest who commanded attention at the party [of over 900 paying guests] was Zeituni Onyango, 56, Obama’s aunt from Kenya who has been in this country illegally and is getting help in her immigration fight from another ball guest, Cleveland attorney Margaret Wong.

Wanna place any bets on the outcome? Who do you think will be the April Fool?

BHO’s White House Muslim recruitment policy

President Barack Hussein Obama is reportedly conducting his own affirmative action program, aimed at bringing more Muslims into the White House. The WorldNetDaily report is here.

Check out the Facebook entry of the Congressional Muslim Staffers Association (CMSA), comprised of Muslim staffers in the U.S. House of Representatives, U.S. Senate, Library of Congress, Congressional Budget Office, and the Capitol Hill Police.

CMSA states its goal as effectively representing the Islamic faith and the Muslim American community to Representatives, Senators, Congressional Staff, and other government organizations and officials. CMSA seeks to promote the active participation of Muslim Americans in U.S. public affairs, contributing to and strengthening American pluralism, multiculturalism, and democratic institutions.

We searched in vain for a similar group representing Baptists, Catholics, Jews, LDS or Presbyterian staffers and are happy to report the efforts were futile.

Slamming down Joe

The daily newspaper’s relentless inky assault on Maricopa County Sheriff Joe Arpaio continues. Today a single story covers three pages. What masquerades as a news report written by Richard Ruelas, is rife with incendiary adjectives such as “stunt,” “ruse,” “escapade,” and “prank.”

The sheriff’s office is castigated in the lengthy article for engaging in a realty show that accounted for hundreds of warrants executed on fugitives in a sting operation.

Ruelas was recently doing restaurant reviews and articles about hookah bars in the Phoenix area. Operating with a skeletal staff as subscriptions tank, the newspaper’s editors have hauled him onto the front page to facilitate their lambaste.

Saving the planet too costly for Phoenix

The daily was hoping we all did our part last night from 8:30 to 9:30 PM. The newspaper urged Arizonans to join the global effort of Earth Hour 2009, turn off their lights and save the planet.

Ahhh…Just flipping that switch feels so good to Al Gore’s global warming crowd.

U.N. Secretary Ban Ki-moon of the Republic of Korea, called Earth Hour “a way for the citizens of the world to send a clear message: They want action on climate change.” Underlying his statement is an agreement to replace the Kyoto Protocol, which is set to expire in 2012. The new accord is supposed to be reached in Denmark, this December, sparking environmentalists’ sense of urgency in this year’s Earth Hour. Developing nations like China and India are not covered by its restrictive provisions, however.

Get it? It’s liberalism and blame America at its finest.

Last year Phoenix was considered a key city for Earth Hour because it was one of just four major cities to participate. This year those plans were curtailed. City buildings will be mostly dark, but that’s simply because it’s a Saturday night.

“What happened last year was it cost us about $3,000 to turn off all the lights,” said Scott Phelps, Mayor Phil Gordon’s spokesman. “We have a budget issue.” Phoenix is joining in on the event, he said, but it will not go out of its way to go dark.

In Arizona, only Peoria and Pima County are officially listed as participating with the event organizers.

Human Achievement Hour (HAH) is a most acceptable alternative to the enviro-zealots — a term coined by columnist Michelle Malkin.

“We salute the people who keep the lights on and produce the energy that helps make human achievement possible,” says Myron Ebell, Competitive Enterprise Institute’s Director of Energy and Global Warming Policy.