House Financial Services Committee Chairman Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., left, talks with Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, right, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, on Capitol Hill Tuesday, March 24,2009. Frank’s committee has passed a bill giving Geithner extensive control over salaries of employees working at companies receiving government bailout funds. (AP Photo/Evan Vucci)

Is this really where we, as Americans, want to be?

In our great drive to put coveteousness  into action, do we really want the US Government now telling everyone just how much money they can make?

Where are our students of history?? Can no one remember what happens when the private sector is no longer private? Are we all just a bunch of lemmings?

Why were there no neurosurgeons on hand to help out Natasha Richardson after her head injury? Had too many left for other countries (read the US) where they could actually make what they are worth?

If we allow the US Government to start regulating who can accept and who can reject bailout money (see Wells Fargo) and THEN put salary controls on everyone in the companies who accept bailout money. . . we will quickly see The Great Brain Drain of the Obama years as our best and brightest will go elsewhere. Look at Jim Rogers for an example.

Loyalty will only take you so far. Smart and gifted Americans, who are worth their salaries, will decide NOT to stay in a country that punishes achievers.

I try so hard, so hard, not to laugh. I mean – it really isn’t funny.

Plus, my kids are starting to think there’s something wrong with mom.

Soooooo, is there anybody who doesn’t think the current, ahem, pull back in the market has anything to do with the Federalization of General Motors??

What the blazing heck does Obama’s administration know about running an automobile company?? They can’t even get people to man the phones over at treasury!!

Grrrrreat!

The Germans, the French and the Chinese are our only hope for a check or balance to the outrageous plans by this current administration to somehow spend our way, with money we don’t have, out of the most serious economic contraction since the Great Depression.

The Germans, because their PM Angela Merkel has thankfully said “no more stimulus”; the French, because Sarkozy will pick up his ball and go home if there is any more talk about loosey-goosey “stimulus” spending; and the Chinese, because if they decide that the “good faith” of the American Government is worth. . . well, worthless,. . . they can decide to stop lending us any more money by refusing to by our securities.

Then, we’ll really have some fun!

Sometimes. Really. Its like a comedy.

Our dear leader, President Obama, extending the royal Olive Branch to those pesky Iranians. Again.

And what does he get in return?

Indignation, sarcasm, and a whole heaping bunch of guffaws.

From the AP:

Iran played down President Barack Obama’s new video message to the Iranian people on Friday, saying it welcomed the overtures but warned that decades of mistrust can’t easily be erased. . .“Obama has talked of change but has taken no practical measures to address America’s past mistakes in Iran. If Mr. Obama takes concrete actions and makes fundamental changes in U.S. foreign policy toward other nations including Iran, the Iranian government and people will not turn their back on him,” Ali Akbar Javanfekr (Iranian President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad’s press adviser) told the Iranian state-run English-language Press TV satellite station. . .

Obama has repeatedly signaled a willingness to engage with Iran about its nuclear program and hostility toward Israel, a key U.S. ally. At his inauguration, the president said his administration would reach out to rival states, declaring “we will extend a hand if you are willing to unclench your fist.”

But Iranian leaders have been not been as eager. Ahmadinejad has said Iran would welcome talks with the U.S.—but only if there was mutual respect. Iranian officials say that means the U.S. needs to stop accusing Iran of seeking to build nuclear weapons and supporting terrorism, charges Tehran has denied. (Meloff’s emphasis)

What? Has April Fool’s Day been moved forward to March?

How does one negotiate with a bully who pulls out the knife every time you look away. And then puts it away with, “I’m just kidding! Come on – don’t you know a joke when you see one? Stop being so judgmental!”

I almost agree with michaelemlong, “Iran plays down new Obama video – thats ok i ignore everything he says”

I just can’t seem to ignore it.

I swear, the President could not have sounded more naive if he had included a line like that.

I’m over on FB and I see that one of my liberal friends has posted how much she liked the address.

Sigh.

It is not about not liking people who are liberal or who has the right to believe what. It is very hard not to feel polarized when you see your country on a fast track to financial, social and political hell and the President is shoveling the coal just as fast as he can.

But, back to his Nowruz address. He spoke of “diplomacy that addresses the full range of issues before us” and “engagement that is honest and grounded in mutual respect.”

Well, if only the people in Iran were able to hear that. And if only we could all trust that he was saying one thing, but making plans for another. And if only the Iranian leadership gave a d— what the Great Satan really had to say.

Alas, he’s looking like the last country bumpkin to fall off the truck on the way to the big city.

I’m off to research how to build my own underground bomb shelter. . .

Okay, all of the obvious hilarity of getting appointed to the White House Council on Women and Girls aside, just what the heck is going on here?

Geithner can’t even seem to do his current job.

You know. The one that involves saving our economy from the worst economic disaster of all recorded history?

Yeah. That one.

The NY Times can see that he already has too much to do.

Compounding the strain on the Treasury, almost all the top posts beneath Mr. Geithner are still vacant. Though he has hired about 50 senior advisers — about half the number he hopes to recruit — the White House has become so worried about potential tax problems and other issues in the backgrounds of candidates that it has nominated only a handful of people.

“Tax problems?” Har har.

But seriously, folks, this is the guy who can push the financial Big Button. And according to former Fed chairperson Paul Volcker,

“The secretary of the treasury is sitting there without a deputy, without any undersecretaries, without any, as far as I know, assistant secretaries responsible in substantive areas at a time of very severe crisis. . . ”

Oh well, never fear, good citizens,

Treasury officials contend that Geithner is receiving plenty of good advice

Whew!

(Oh – just couldn’t resist this flashback. Poor Dave. Totally overestimated the integrity of the current administration.)

Maybe the Schumoozer is right. Maybe the American people don’t care.

Maybe.

But I wonder if the 38% of voters nationwide who thought a month ago that the $787-billion stimulus plan passed by Congress would help the economy are starting to rethink all that.

And how about the 37% who currently think that Obama is doing a great job?

More than one out of every five dollars of the $125 million Massachusetts is receiving from a federal spending bill is going to help preserve the legacy of the Kennedys.

Wow.

But, it isn’t all bad news. After all, Senator Kennedy says he didn’t ask for the money. And besides, there are dozens of other porky ammen. .  er. . earmarks in this bill for “homeless services and community health centers.”

But you gotta wonder -  wouldn’t there would be a hell of a lot more money for those homeless services and community health centers if Senator Kennedy wasn’t getting paid off?

Hmmm. . .

Thanks to Hot Air and MichelleMalkin.com, we get to see just how Rep. Rangel has decided to represent “the people.”

From Glenn Beck: