Walt Schmidt

Americans across this great land beamed with excitement when GM announced that they paid back their government loans ahead of schedule. Until, that is, someone had the nerve to ask where they got the money to pay it back. Turns out, GM paid back the TARP money using TARP funds from an escrow account at Treasury.

This must be a misunderstanding. Maybe GM can clear it up:

Question: Are you just paying the government back with government money?

GM Vice Chairman Stephen Girsky: Well listen, that is in effect true, but a year ago nobody thought we’d be able to pay this back.

Or, maybe not.

GM Pays Back TARP Loans With … TARP Loans

Thomas Jefferson wrote that all men “are endowed by their Creator with inherent and inalienable rights; that among these, are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness.”

Here in America, we’re in the midst of an intense, but quite healthy, debate over health care reform. Part of the debate is whether access to health care is one of those inherent rights.

Rep. Dennis Kucinich released a statement last month where he said, “I believe health care is a civil right.”

But if you think the health care debate is explosive, imagine a Congressperson trying to sell what Antonio Tajani is pushing.

Tajani, the European Union commissioner for enterprise and industry, said, “Traveling for tourism today is a right.”

The leadership in Brussels agrees. If you’re retired, young, or too poor to afford it yourself, you should have your travel subsidized by the government.

I think Glenn Beck’s head just exploded.

The percentage [of Americans who identify themselves as Tea Party supporters] holding a favorable opinion of former President George W. Bush, at 57 percent, almost exactly matches the percentage in the general public that holds an unfavorable view of him.

(source)

Is the Tea Party movement really an uprising born from the election of Barack Obama? Not if the majority hold a favorable opinion of George W. Bush. As evidenced by their actions, both President Bush and President Obama believed in increasing the size and reach of federal government. Both Presidents pushed reckless financial policies that included increasing debt. Frankly, they have more in common than most Tea Party supporters would care to admit.

If those in the Tea Party really believed what their signs said, they would hold similar opinions of Obama and Bush. Very little separates the political principles of these two men and of most elected Republicans and Democrats. Another reason why real alternatives brought by the likes of Ron Paul are so refreshing.

A new Rasmussen Reports national telephone survey of likely voters finds a hypothetical 2012 election match-up between Republican Congressman Ron Paul and President Obama to be virtually dead even.

This is encouraging to those of us who are frustrated with business as usual.

Paul gets knocked for being too idealistic and not living enough in the real world. But it doesn’t have to be all or nothing. Even embracing the spirit of some of his ideas would be an improvement.

Congressman Paul’s son, Rand, is seeking the Republican nomination for U.S. Senate in Kentucky. He recently commented on “extreme” ideas.

“People sometimes say to me, ‘Aren’t your views a little extreme?’ ” Paul recounted. “I say to them that I don’t think a balanced budget is extreme. I think a $2 trillion deficit, now that’s extreme.”

The Gradual Disappearance Of Flash Websites

Ron Paul chastises at GOP conference: Conservatives ‘like the empire’

The Republican Party can’t handle the truth.

Video Review of new Panasonic HPX 370/371 House season finale shot entirely with Canon 5DmkII