Barney Frank wants to control your pay

The government has successfully put a limit on top executives working in firms receiving bailout money. Now Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) wants more control in how all employees of these firms are paid:

But now, in a little-noticed move, the House Financial Services Committee, led by chairman Barney Frank, has approved a measure that would, in some key ways, go beyond the most draconian features of the original AIG bill. The new legislation, the "Pay for Performance Act of 2009," would impose government controls on the pay of all employees -- not just top executives -- of companies that have received a capital investment from the U.S. government. It would, like the tax measure, be retroactive, changing the terms of compensation agreements already in place. And it would give Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner extraordinary power to determine the pay of thousands of employees of American companies.

The purpose of the legislation is to "prohibit unreasonable and excessive compensation and compensation not based on performance standards," according to the bill's language. That includes regular pay, bonuses -- everything -- paid to employees of companies in whom the government has a capital stake, including those that have received funds through the Troubled Assets Relief Program, or TARP, as well as Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac.

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."

Again, once the government gets a taste of new power, it never relents in grabbing more.

Oh please, not another .gov website!

The Treasury Department announces FinancialStability.gov:

a website dedicated to bringing transparency and clarity to the immensely complex problems in the financial system and the President’s plans to address them.

If Geithner cannot explain it on TV, how can he explain it on a website? I'd rather all that money, time, and energy spent on creating this website used someplace else. Seriously, how many .gov sites do we need with this administration?!

Harold and Kumar go to White House

How about that for a Hollywood blockbuster? It's starting to look that way with Harold Koh, nominated by President Obama to be the State Department's legal advisor, and talks of the White House perusing top Muslim Americans for a high ranking government position.

But this is no comedy. Before his nomination Harold Koh was dean at Yale Law School, but once he enters the State Department as one of the government's top lawyers, he'll have powers to be feared because he'll be the one forging international treaties and agreements with foreign nations.

His beliefs are worrisome and even anti-American:

Koh has called America's focus on the War on Terror "obsessive." In 2004, he listed countries that flagrantly disregard international law -- "most prominently, North Korea, Iraq, and our own country, the United States of America," which he branded "the axis of disobedience."

He has also accused President George Bush of abusing international law to justify the invasion of Iraq, comparing his "advocacy of unfettered presidential power" to President Richard Nixon's. And that was the first Bush -- Koh was attacking the 1991 operation to liberate Kuwait, four days after fighting began in Operation Desert Storm.

Koh has also praised the Nicaraguan Sandinistas' use in the 1980s of the International Court of Justice to get Congress to stop funding the Contras. Imagine such international lawyering by rogue nations like Iran, Syria, North Korea and Venezuela today, and you can see the danger in Koh's theories.

Koh, a self-described "activist," would plainly promote his views aggressively once at State. He's not likely to feel limited by the letter of the law -- in 1994, he told The New Republic: "I'd rather have [former Supreme Court Justice Harry] Blackmun, who uses the wrong reasoning in Roe [v. Wade] to get the right results, and let other people figure out the right reasoning."

Worse, the State job might be a launching pad for a Supreme Court nomination. (He's on many liberals' short lists for the high court.) Since this job requires Senate confirmation, it's certainly a useful trial run.

Be scared. Be very scared. The nomination of Harold Koh needs to be a flashing, bright blip on the political radar!

Did the NYT break federal election law by killing "game changer" piece about ACORN-Obama?

It's no wonder that The New York Times is losing subscribers by the boatload and needing to sell its office spaces for cash with such questionable journalistic practices:

A lawyer involved with legal action against Association of Community Organizations for Reform Now (ACORN) told a House Judiciary subcommittee on March 19 The New York Times had killed a story in October that would have shown a close link between ACORN, Project Vote and the Obama campaign because it would have been a “a game changer.”

Heather Heidelbaugh, who represented the Pennsylvania Republican State Committee in the lawsuit against the group, recounted for the committee what she had been told by a former ACORN worker who had worked in the group’s Washington, D.C. office. The former worker, Anita Moncrief, told Ms. Heidelbaugh last October, during the state committee’s litigation against ACORN, she had been a “confidential informant for several months to The New York Times reporter, Stephanie Strom.”

Ms. Moncrief had been providing Ms. Strom with information about ACORN’s election activities. Ms. Strom had written several stories based on information Ms. Moncrief had given her.

During her testimony, Ms. Heidelbaugh said Ms. Moncrief had told her The New York Times articles stopped when she revealed that the Obama presidential campaign had sent its maxed-out donor list to ACORN’s Washington, D.C. office.

Ms. Moncrief told Ms. Heidelbaugh the campaign had asked her and her boss to “reach out to the maxed-out donors and solicit donations from them for Get Out the Vote efforts to be run by ACORN.”

Undeniable evidence of the NYT being the liberal mouthpiece of Democrats. Mainstream media at its leftist best. Who would want to read this biased trash? The death of journalism indeed!

Next target: Sarah Palin

The Democrats are leaving Rush Limbaugh alone now, perhaps after realizing that targeting him only helped him gain more listeners. Who's their next target? Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, of course!

I'm predicting another Democratic backfire. People are tired of this crap from the Democrat "strategists." Stop wasting time "strategizing" and start doing something productive, like fixing the economy or something. The majority of Americans know that this is just a way to divert attention away from the real issues, and they will not fall for it. No matter how people view Gov. Palin, they still know that their immediate needs are: pay mortgage, job security, and feed the family. And hearing the Democrats blabber about Palin this and Palin that does not help them.

Please move on, you Democrat strategizermeisters.

Obama courts Muslim Americans for administration

There's a secret (until now) book of resumes of top 45 Muslim Americans being submitted to the White House because President Obama may want to staff his administration with a few Muslims. To promote religious reconciliation, I'm sure.

Wait, I thought we're not supposed to hire based on a preference of race, gender, or faith?

Thank you for a blog milestone!

Dear Readers,

I want to write a quick note to thank you for pushing this blog's pageviews to over 1,000 since its inception in September 2008. Compared to other conservative blogs out there this is nothing as they command thousands of visitors per hour, but to us this is kind of a big deal...

We are definitely encouraged by your continued support. We are glad to be doing our part in the growing conservative revolution! As always, your comments and feedback are welcomed, and please help us spread the word, too.

General Motors is now Government Motors

There is a troubling trend in the relationship between American companies and the American government since Obama took office. Companies are failing, but also failing to enter bankruptcy, a norm in a healthy capitalist society. Rather, the federal government prefers to provide loans and inject capital into them, in turn prolonging the suffering of the firms and of the taxpayers as well. And because of these government funds, now it owns shares of companies, and is even dictating how to run them, on Wall Street and in Detroit.

The latest casualty is General Motors, once an American -- no, global -- icon. Rick Wagoner is now an ex-CEO, to be replaced by COO Fritz Henderson at the demand of the White House. Yes, you read it correctly: it's the President that's telling G.M. how to operate now. Welcome to the new Detroit, folks.

The auto industry has roots so deep in Detroit, Michigan that I wouldn't be surprised one bit if the White House starting handpicking the mayor and governor for the city and state! Heck, just annex Michigan into another federal jurisdiction! Washington, D.C. is still the capitol, but Detroit, D.C. can be where the federal government runs businesses.

More about the unconstitutional bailout legislation

There has been a lot of interest in the constitutionality of the Emergency Economic Stabilization Act of 2008 (EESA) and the TARP funds. I see a lot of Internet searches about this. George Will has a very good piece in the Washington Post about this topic:

By enacting it, Congress did not in any meaningful sense make a law. Rather, it made executive branch officials into legislators. Congress said to the executive branch, in effect: "Here is $700 billion. You say you will use some of it to buy up banks' 'troubled assets.' But if you prefer to do anything else with the money -- even, say, subsidize automobile companies -- well, whatever."

FreedomWorks, a Washington-based libertarian advocacy organization, argues that EESA violates "the nondelegation doctrine." Although the text does not spell it out, the Constitution's logic and structure -- particularly the separation of powers -- imply limits on the size and kind of discretion that Congress may confer on the executive branch.

One of the beauties of the U.S. Constitution is separation of the three branches of power: Executive, Legislative, and Judicial. With EESA, Congress is giving the president unconstitutional powers by allowing him to write the specifics of the law, i.e. how the money is to be appropriated. That should be Congress' job!

Taxpaying citizens like you and I ought to be enraged by this! It's evident that we have a lazy Congress bowing to the demands of a fear-mongering President. And now the next two or more generations of Americans are to pay for the astronomical debt -- bought up by the billions by Communist China. The consequences of ignoring the Constitution is grave...

City cancels tea party

The Cape Coral, Florida, city council cancels the tea party planned at Jaycee Park on April 1. For what reason? Too many people may show up, and the organizer, Lynn Rosko, is unwilling to get the required insurance for an event with 500 or more attendees anticipated.

First, the city council thinks there's going to be over 500 participants. Therefore it is requesting insurance. Would the city council reimburse the insurance fees if less than 500 shows up?

Second, it's a public park. Shouldn't taxpayers feel free to use a park facility they paid for? And by the way, taxes pay for the salaries of council members?

Third, thanks to the Internet here's information about Cape Coral's mayor and city council. Politely call them and email them as they deserve to hear your opinion on this matter.

Go Merkel, go!

British P.M. Gordon Brown plans to present a "Global New Deal" to G20 leaders, suggesting a $2 trillion stimulus to end the recession. He and President Obama can definitely be buddies, and maybe the Global New Deal ought to include efforts to remove the DVD region codes so that Brown can view those gifted movies from Obama. However, German Chancellor Angela Merkel already showing some backbone to criticize Brown's plan, and there are other leaders who agree with her (e.g. Spanish finance minister Pedro Solbes).

All I can say is, "Well done, ma'am!" Maybe Merkel can talk some sense into our spending-happy President...

Video of Biden's daughter doing cocaine?

There is trouble in the domestic front -- V.P. Joe Biden's family and by extension, the White House family. Somebody has video of Ashley Biden, or somebody who resembles her, at a party enjoying a few lines of cocaine.

If the video is truly evidence of Ashley's drug use, then we can expect the standard "children are off limits" spin from the W.H. and the Second Family. I predict the mainstream media burying this story. We're likely going to see another fine example of media double standard: Remember how the media portrayed the Bush twins' college drinking? Or how about the pregnancy of Gov. Palin's daughter? The media had field days with those stories -- nothing was off limits then.

It is unfortunate that the children of politicians also come under the spotlight, but it is even more unfortunate that the mainstream media would tirelessly pursue certain stories to advance their (and the liberal pols they support) agenda than some others.

Conservatives leading in tweets

Liberals may have a strong grip on the mainstream media, but conservatives are dominating Twitter usage, notably with the most popular #tcot hashtag. Conservative tweets are gathering so much steam that liberals are paying attention and trying to counter the #tcot wave. Thanks to the efforts of Republican strategist Michael P. Leahy, there's even a site for the #tcot community, Top Conservatives On Twitter (now also part of our Reading List).

If you have not jumped onto the Twitter bandwagon, please reconsider and join the millions of conservative Twitterers in an ongoing stream of conversation about the economy, foreign policy, national security, and much more!

(And remember to follow us @AsianConsBlog.)

World's most dangerous city

The world's most dangerous city -- Washington. That's according to Tony Blankley writing in Human Events:

But Washington's threat to the nation and the world is from more than acts of crass political expediency -- hardly an unknown phenomenon in any nation's capital.

I am struck -- and chilled to the bone -- by the fact that in the face of this perhaps unprecedented economic storm, both political parties (with, of course, several individual exceptions) are reflexively and unthinkingly sticking to their normal economic and policy nostrums.

He makes a very good point. The actions of politicians in Washington not only impact the lives of Americans, but very well also the lives of others in the world. It is unfortunate that they do not use their powers wisely.

Clinton blames U.S. on Mexican drug war

Is Hillary Clinton secretary of state to Mexico? She goes to our neighbor to the south and spews junk like this:

"Our insatiable demand for illegal drugs fuels the drug trade. Our inability to prevent weapons from being illegally smuggled across the border to arm these criminals causes the death of police officers, soldiers and civilians."

Although she is 100 percent correct in pointing out our inability to stop weapons trickling across the border. Maybe it's time for tougher immigration enforcement and border security! I cannot believe it took the violent Mexican drug cartels to force Washington to just think about defending our borders.

Collapse of Eastern Europe?

Many of these nations are staunch U.S. allies, so seeing their governments collapse because of the global economic meltdown is somewhat troublesome. The latest to fall is the Czech government, although it wasn't due to the economy. However, Hungary, Latvia, and Ukraine aren't so lucky and has had to approach IMF for funds.

Charities not keen to Obama tax plan

President Obama is putting the tax squeeze on high income earners and may inadvertently harm the chances of charities. The President doesn't think higher taxes would impact charitable donations. Ignorance at its best.

Charities are already suffering in this down economy. Families are spending less and giving less, too. Obviously one would take care of immediate family needs before charitable givings. If the President wants to tax more, it's only common sense that less money would go to charities because less money is left in the taxpayer's wallet.

California: save the planet, ban black cars

Only people in the Left Coast can come up with such insanity. Official state government study here.

I propose doing more: force automakers to use reflective paint for all Californian automobiles. That'll save the planet (even though it'll destroy people's eyesight).

Already talk of a flailing presidency

Fred Barnes is brutally honest in his latest column, "Five Signs of a Flailing Presidency." Will Obama and his team take note?

Surprise! Another nominee withdraws

I'm starting to think that the Obama administration is one that has the least cabinet members or other high ranking officials. Today we have Jon Cannon withdrawing his name for consideration as the Deputy Administrator for the EPA. Why? Well, maybe some shady deals happened when he was a board member of America's Clean Water Foundation.

I won't be surprised if Obama fails to completely fill his cabinet posts by the end of his four-year term...