Seriously - someone thought this was a good idea?

More proof that the current administration possesses the foresight and clear thinking to lead this country out of the economic and political mess we find ourselves in. Even Senator Charles Schumer, one of the most liberal voices in the Senate, called this "outrageous and appalling". . . "knowing full well that New Yorkers would still have the memory of 9/11 sketched in their minds.". Of course he put the blame on the FAA for approving the White House request, not on the administration for even suggesting it.

You can read the article from the Chicago Tribune.

The White House did apologize for the incident, but shouldn't someone have thought this might not be a good idea? Why not let the media know they were going to do this ahead of time? The President wasn't going to be on the plane, so there could not have been a security risk.

As a photographer, there is a code we follow - "no photo is worth the risk if it poses a threat to the subject, the environment, or to someone else." No matter how dramatic a photo of Air Force One with an F-16 escort over the Statue of Liberty would be, it can not be worth even the momentary fear it would cause the people of New York.

I guess none of this should be surprising from an administration that continually downplays the threat of terrorism. We negotiate with Iran, we unofficially ban the phrase "War on Terror", and want to surrender Iraq and Afghanistan to the forces that oppose democracy and freedom.

Unable to find any other tax cheats...

Obama was forced to settle for Hollywood morons.  What better person to serve as the associate director for the Office of Public Liason?  You can't make this stuff up.

I'm sure he is well qualified, but are we really going to take Kumar seriously?  At least we don't have to worry about another Obama zombie - geesh.  He looks like a school girl at a Jonas Brothers concert.

Am I the only one who finds this stuff funny?

Ben Franklin is probably my favorite Patriot

Yes He CAN!!!

...continue to nominate people with criminal connections.  It won't be long and the FBI will have to set up a sattelite office on Pennsylvania Avenue.

Thank goodness Obama brought change to Washington - can you imagine how many of his people would get arrested if he was politics as usual?

Why our gov't is making it worse

Why does home value matter?
"In introducing his plan, Obama rightly said that we're all in this together. Helping families avoid foreclosure would prop up the value of every house in a neighborhood, so we all have an interest in keeping these people in their homes. That justifies the use of taxpayer money."

"Or does it? Step back for a minute and think about the assumptions behind the president's logic. They show the same mind-set that got us into this mess. If you saved for years, built up a big down payment and then bought a house you could afford, you're not really thinking of a decline in the value of your house as an immediate problem. You intend to live there. It's shelter. An asset for the long haul."

"Propping up the price of your home in the here and now is important if you still think of your house as an ATM. Forking over tax dollars to prop up home prices in your neighborhood is worthwhile if you need a higher price so you can increase the size of your home equity line of credit to finance a lifestyle you couldn't otherwise afford."

A shelter or an investment?

"From the point of view of someone who sees a house as a place to live -- and not as an ATM -- that's just nuts. And once you reject the president's logic that spending taxpayer money like this helps us all, the plan starts to seem even more unfair to us chumps."

"The administration's plan to help 7 million to 9 million homeowners with unaffordable mortgages isn't going to make any effort to separate the victims from the venal. I know the task of discriminating the real-estate sheep from the wolves in sheep's clothing can be horrendously difficult, but let's at least try before we spend taxpayer money. Some effort to detect fraud on the original application should be part of the plan, no?"

"What about the careful folks, prototypical chumps in this financial world, who have been saving while renting and waiting for the day that housing prices would come down. In today's mortgage market -- if they can get a mortgage at all -- they'll need not 10% down but 20% down. And they'll need a FICO credit score of 740 to get the best rate."

"These conservative savers who have planned ahead would like housing prices to go down a bit more, and they're certainly not rooting for a quick U-turn in the housing market. And we ought to be cheering them on -- individually and as taxpayers who would like to see a recovery in the economy. It's new buyers like these who will, at some price, clear the housing market of what is now excess inventory."

"If we're out to help people who are facing foreclosure because they've lost a job, surely the best plan would be something to create jobs (call it a fiscal stimulus plan) and targeted loans or mortgage renegotiations or refinancing to help families bridge what may be a lengthy period of unemployment."

"I doubt that the Obama mortgage plan would cause so many people to see red if it were occurring in isolation. But it's not. The plan is hitting us when we're already angry at CEOs collecting millions or tens of millions in pay and bonuses while, to put it lightly, underperforming. Get ready for the next wave: mutual fund company management that earned millions while their funds plummeted. To single out just one example among many, Duncan Richardson, the chief stock investment officer for Eaton Vance (EV, news, msgs), got paid $3.7 million for the year that ended Oct. 31, 2008, while the company's stock mutual funds fell 38%."

-Jim Jubak

I received my newsletter from Mr. Jubak today and couldn't agree more with him (as usual). If we as a people could ever get past all the hype surrounding our current president, we'd see that he is no different than any of our most recent presidents. He is completely out of touch with what he doing. The only thing I agree with him on is that the economy will recover. I just wish he'd stop doing things to slow that recovery down.

I understand how painful the downturn is. I'm one of the people who bought a house I could afford - that is until the greedy SOBs who used housing as an ATM and bought/gave mortgages that people couldn't afford crashed and burned. Those people get a bailout - I get to be unemployed and probably lose my house.  Does that make sense.  Why can't we let those who gambled and lost, actually lose?  It's like watching a NBA game with Tim Donaghy.  He decides who wins and loses, not the market.

I'm starting to think the only "change" we are seeing in Washington is the color of the guy's skin.  But I guess that's what we deserve, that's what most people based their vote on.

Unless of course you want to be Secretary of Treasury

Yesterday, President Obama declared that we can't send the message

"that there aren't two sets of rules — you know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes"

The comments came after Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration as Secretary of Health and Human Services because he owes more than $100,000 in back taxes that he failed to pay on his car service and consulting fees. This is particularly ironic when this former campaign commercial surfaced.



Obama now admits he screwed up. Of course just 24 hours before he was firmly behind the nominee, even after the tax issue had surfaced.

On the surface, the no two rules comment appears to be exactly what we would want to hear from Washington. I won't even go into the elitist overtones in his semantics, but I will say the facts don't support the sound byte. Not only are there two sets of rules, there are two sets in his cabinet. Does he not remember that Tim Geitner was just approved for Secretary of Treasury despite not paying his self employment taxes?

If Obama thinks the American people are too dumb to see his actions don't line up with what he says, I think he is in for a rude awakening. The hype can only last but so long.

Here we go...

Another cool Steelers video. Even Obama has a terrible towel - I guess he can't be all bad.

Is anyone as outraged as I am...

... that our newly appointed Secretary of Treasury either knowingly cheated or doesn't know how to fill out his taxes? That he doesn't understand the self employment tax? That he ignored the quarterly statement reminding him that he was being compensated for those taxes? And then chose to only correct the two years that were still within the statute of limitations? here.

... that he of all people would need to rely on TurboTax? here.

... or that he thinks an apology makes his incompetence or criminal nature (you choose) ok? here.

... or how about the change we were promised by our new President. If he is as honorable as he and the media claim, shouldn't he be asking Mr. Geithner to step aside? Even when he knew of the tax issue before he nominated him? Here.

... or we think that someone who doesn't understand his tax obligations is going to lead the Treasury and the Obama administration through this financial crisis?

... or that hundreds of thousands of people continue to lose their jobs while they putz around trying to figure out what went wrong? Hello - we know what went wrong.

Write your Senators immediately to voice your opposition to Tim Geithner. Tell them we don't need his kid of help.