WinkyDog

By John Paul (jpaul@wsbt.com)
The President of the United Auto Workers rejects the notion the Union was responsible for the bailout rejection from the Senate. The receptionist from the UAW Local 5 said officials declined to comment, adding that the union did not want to get in the middle of the national issue. They did stress that they were concerned about employees and jobs.

You probably need to get rid of the Kabbalah bracelet Dhimmi-DumbAss, before someone cuts your head off, if they’re not scared to death of you…

On second thought, keep it on.

Posted December 12th, 2008 at 10.25am in Entrepreneurship.
With the Senate’s rejection of a bailout for Detroit’s ailing automakers, there now comes word that President Bush is actively considering using funds allocated by Congress for the Trouble Asset Relief Program (TARP) to prop up the automakers for the time being. Such action would be wrong legally, wrong economically, and counterproductive to turning around these troubled businesses. And by opening the door to such open-ended use of taxpayer money for virtually unlimited uses, a unilateral decision to employ TARP funds would jeopardize George W. Bush’s legacy as a friend of the taxpayer.
Until now, the Bush administration has resisted repurposing TARP funds for industrial policy, though this morning comes word that the Treasury may have reversed course. TARP, administration officials have said, was intended to shore up the stability of the financial markets and stave off economic collapse, not to inject capital into failing non-financial businesses. Moreover, only $15 billion remains of the initial $350 billion in TARP funds disbursed by Congress.
More problematic, Treasury lacks the statutory authority to direct TARP dollars to the automakers. While the statute, passed by Congress in October, grants the secretary extremely broad discretion to decide how to employ the funds, it clearly limits the recipients to “financial institutions.” And the definition of that term is quite clear:
FINANCIAL INSTITUTION- The term ‘financial institution’ means any institution, including, but not limited to, any bank, savings association, credit union, security broker or dealer, or insurance company, established and regulated under the laws of the United States or any State, territory, or possession of the United States, the District of Columbia, Commonwealth of Puerto Rico, Commonwealth of Northern Mariana Islands, Guam, American Samoa, or the United States Virgin Islands, and having significant operations in the United States, but excluding any central bank of, or institution owned by, a foreign government.
This doesn’t leave much room for interpretation.
In this case, due to the enumeration of included institutions in the statute, the term “any institution” is necessarily defined, in part, by the list that follow it: “bank, savings association, credit union, security broker or dealer, or insurance company.” An automaker is unlike any of these things, being a manufacturer of goods, not a financial intermediary.

Brad Shannon - The Olympian

Gov. Chris Gregoire said Thursday that she disagrees with the solstice message placed in the state Capitol by an atheist group, but she cannot order that it be removed because of free-speech guarantees that also allow a Nativity scene and Christmas tree near the Rotunda.

“This is not about my personal religion. This is about the First Amendment and respecting views that I don’t necessarily agree with,” Gregoire said, citing the opinion of the Attorney General’s Office, which settled a lawsuit in 2007 over letting the Nativity scene be displayed near the Rotunda.

Gregoire’s office has come under criticism for two days from callers — mostly from other states — reacting to a commentary on a nationally aired TV show on Fox News blasting her as a weak and confused leader for allowing the Nativity scene and atheists’ placard in close proximity to each other. The Nativity bears a message about “the birth of Jesus Christ, which is celebrated by Christians around the world.”

The atheists’ display was granted a permit by the state Department of General Administration and installed Monday by the Wisconsin-based Freedom From Religion Foundation. Lois Walker, a Shelton woman who belonged to the group until her recent death, had requested it early in the fall.

The display talks about the natural world, says there are no gods or devils and calls religion a “myth and superstition that hardens hearts and enslaves minds.”

Read the complete story at theolympian.com

a WinkyDog cartoon by:kelly phillips

Of coarse he did.