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Helen Thomas Blasts White House Control Of Press

“Transparency and the rule of law will be the touchstones of this
presidency.”

-U.S. President Barack Obama, January 21, 2009, upon signing executive orders relating to ethics guidelines for staff members of his administration

It appears the Obama administration is having a hard time convincing legendary journalist and prominent symbol of the liberal media Helen Thomas, who has been a correspondent for 57 years and has covered every president since JFK, that this is indeed the case these days.

From MyFOX Dallas/Fort Worth yesterday:

During the daily press briefing on Wednesday, some reporters asked whether the White House staged questions at President Obama’s Wednesday Town Hall meeting on health care.

On its Web site, the White House had asked Americans to submit questions to the president via social networking sites like Facebook, Twitter and YouTube. The White House says hundreds of entries were received.

Press Secretary Robert Gibbs said the White House would “screen” submissions — and pick some for the president to answer at his town hall in Virginia. But at least two reporters told Gibbs this amounted to choosing questions, which would just make Obama look good.

“This is an open forum for the public to ask question,” said Chip Reid of CBS News. “But it’s not really open?”

“Based on what?” responded Gibbs.

“Based on the information … on how the audience and the questions are being selected,” said Reid.

“How about this: I promise we will interrupt the AP’s tradition of asking the first question. I’ll let you ask me a question tomorrow on whether you thought the questions at the town hall meeting that the President conducted at Annandale….”

“That’s not his point,” interrupted Helen Thomas, correspondent for Hearst Newspapers. “That’s, that’s not his point. His point is the control from here. We have never had that in the White House. I’m amazed at you people who call for openness and transparency and control.

“You have left open the suggestion that you are pumping the answers,” Thomas continued. “It’s shocking. It’s really shocking.”

“Let’s have this discussion at the conclusion of the town hall meeting,” Gibbs said.

“No, no, no. We are having it now.” claimed Thomas. “It’s a pattern. It’s a pattern. It isn’t the question. It’s a pattern of controlling the press.”

CNS News’ Fred Lucas and Penny Starr added the following:

Following a testy exchange during Wednesday’s briefing with White House Press Secretary Robert Gibbs, veteran White House correspondent Helen Thomas told CNSNews.com that not even Richard Nixon tried to control the press the way President Obama is trying to control the press.

“Nixon didn’t try to do that,” Thomas said. “They couldn’t control (the media). They didn’t try.”

“What the hell do they think we are, puppets?” Thomas said. “They’re supposed to stay out of our business. They are our public servants. We pay them.”

What’s next? A fake press conference?

Thomas/White House Exchange
MyFOX Dallas/Fort Worth Video Link

Sources:

“Helen Thomas, Reporter Grill Gibbs”
MyFOX Dallas/Fort Worth, July 2, 2009

“Helen Thomas: Not Even Nixon Tried to Control the Media Like Obama”
Fred Lucas, Penny Starr
CNSNews.com, July 1, 2009

CNBC Broadcast: Financial Markets Manipulated By Washington?

(Hat tip, Signs Of The Times):

From CNBC feed out of Chicago this past Monday (2 minutes in):

SecretsOfTraders.com’s Larry Levin: This market continues to be propped-up by government intervention, and manipulation, and, unfortunately, as that continues to happen, I think this market can go higher. The government’s been doing a good job of keeping it that way no matter what the real underlying current is, unfortunately…

You’re gonna have to… right on Obama and his staff as basically trying to prop this market up on a daily basis. They’re doing a good job…

But it really is a situation where, every single day, we have some kind of backstop from the government. I mean, these markets are not free markets anymore. You know, this whole year has been absolutely ridiculous…

CNBC’s Rick Santelli: Well, I think Larry’s doing a darn good job. I tend to agree with most of what he’s saying…

A Question Of Journalistic Integrity

“There are honest journalists like there are honest politicians – they stay bought.”

-Bill Moyers, American journalist, public commentator, and former White House Press Secretary in the Lyndon B. Johnson Administration. 1934- )

Say it ain’t so, WaPo!

From Mike Allen and Michael Calderone of the political news site POLITICO this morning:

Washington Post publisher Katharine Weymouth said today she was canceling plans for an exclusive “salon” at her home where for as much as $250,000, the Post offered lobbyists and association executives off-the-record access to “those powerful few” — Obama administration officials, members of Congress, and even the paper’s own reporters and editors.

The astonishing offer was detailed in a flier circulated Wednesday to a health care lobbyist, who provided it to a reporter because the lobbyist said he felt it was a conflict for the paper to charge for access to, as the flier says, its “health care reporting and editorial staff.”

With the Post newsroom in an uproar after POLITICO reported the solicitation, Weymouth said in an email to the staff that “a flier went out that was prepared by the Marketing department and was never vetted by me or by the newsroom. Had it been, the flier would have been immediately killed, because it completely misrepresented what we were trying to do.”

Weymouth said the paper had planned a series of dinners with participation from the newsroom “but with parameters such that we did not in any way compromise our integrity. Sponsorship of events, like advertising in the newspaper, must be at arm’s length and cannot imply control over the content or access to our journalists. At this juncture, we will not be holding the planned July dinner and we will not hold salon dinners involving the newsroom…”

$250,000? I wonder how much a trip to the salon’s VIP Room would have cost?

Source:

“WaPo cancels lobbyist event amid uproar”
Mike Allen, Michael Calderone
POLITICO, July 2, 2009

California In State Of Fiscal Emergency

Bet you didn’t see this one coming. From Reuters this afternoon:

California Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger Wednesday declared a fiscal emergency for the government of the most populous U.S. state to force lawmakers into a special session to tackle a $24.3 billion state budget gap.

Lawmakers have failed to agree on a spending plan that balances the state’s budget for its new fiscal year, which began early Wednesday morning, and budget talks are at an impasse.

“Though the legislature failed to solve our budget problem yesterday, rest assured that solving the entire deficit remains my first and only priority, and I will not rest until we get it done. I will not be a part of pushing this crisis down the road — the road stops here,” Schwarzenegger said in a statement.

IOU. One for you. And one for you…

The Governator argues with lawmakers

Source:

“Schwarzenegger Declares California In Fiscal Emergency”
Reuters, July 1, 2009

Several States Face Midnight Budget Deadline

Talk about coming down to the wire. Reuters’ Jim Christie wrote this evening about how several states are trying to approve budgets for the new fiscal year— before midnight tonight. Christie said:

California prepared on Tuesday to resort to issuing IOUs as the giant but cash-strapped U.S. state struggled to approve a new budget in time for the new fiscal year that begins on Wednesday.

The IOUs, which are notes promising payment to vendors and local agencies, or shutting down some public services, are among measures that California and other states may have to rely on as they contend with staggering budget gaps caused by the U.S. recession.

Several U.S. states are due to start their fiscal years on July 1 with budget talks at an impasse. California, the most populous state, is especially hard hit.

The Golden State, hit by a leap in unemployment and a crash in property values, is suffering its worst tax revenue fall since the Great Depression and faces a $24.3 billion budget deficit.

“It’s been a sort of perfect storm, of a very deep recession hitting us and exposing the weakness of depending on revenue sources sensitive to economic cycles,” labor lobbyist Barry Broad said.

Fixing the massive budget gap “is going to require pain. That’s the only way out of it,” added Jack Pitney, a professor of government at Claremont McKenna College.

California Governor Arnold Schwarzenegger insists on deep spending cuts. But Democrats who run the Legislature want tax increases that Schwarzenegger and fellow Republicans oppose.

Lili Ladaga of Yahoo! News also talked about California’s woes this afternoon, and wrote:

If the political wrangling over the budget isn’t resolved by midnight tonight, Californians will be feeling the pain on every level, big and small. Just a few of the proposed spending cuts:

— State employees will be forced to take another day of unpaid leave a month, in addition to the two days leave they were forced to take starting in December. (NYT)

— Funding for the Bureau of Narcotics Enforcement will be slashed by $20 million. The “little-known unit” has played a key role in several of the state’s high-profile cases: The bureau’s agents helped arrest Scott Petersen for the murder of his wife and unborn child, and their investigation led to charges in Anna Nicole Smith’s overdose death. (AP)

— 80 percent of state parks would be closed, 25 in the Bay Area alone, including several beaches along the peninsula. Park visitors spend an estimated $2.6 billion a year in and near state parks, but closing the parks would save only .26 percent of the $24 billion deficit. (SF Chronicle)

— Education funding would be reduced by $5.3 billion. School districts have already laid off 30,000 employees. Class sizes are expected to surge from 20 to 30 students and many after school programs, arts and music classes will be cut. A national education survey conducted this year ranked California 47th in per-student spending. (AP)

— Gov. Schwarzenegger is proposing to eliminate the state’s $1.3 billion welfare program. Frank Mecca, the head of the County Welfare Directors Association of California, tells Time, “California could become the only state in the First World without subsistence benefits for poor children.”

Christie also talked about how other states are dealing with their budget deadlines. He wrote:

As California officials readied their IOUs, Ohio Governor Ted Strickland on Tuesday signed a seven-day interim spending plan that buys lawmakers more time to craft a two-year budget.

“It is troubling that Senate Republicans are still refusing to say what they would do to fill the budget gap. Because of this, I have no other option but to sign a temporary budget that only delays the inevitable hard choices before us,” Strickland, a Democrat, said in a statement.

Meanwhile, Indiana appeared to be on course to avert a government shutdown at midnight. A vote on a compromise budget was heading for a vote on Tuesday, according to John Schorg, a spokesman for Democrats who control the House.

Republican Governor Mitch Daniels has said safety services, such as state police and prisons, will continue to operate should there be a shutdown, while other services would stop.

Illinois lawmakers could send Governor Pat Quinn legislation to sell $2.23 billion of shorter-term general obligation bonds to ease spending cuts in a budget they passed late last month. Proceeds from the bonds would fund part of a fiscal 2010 pension payment, freeing up money in the budget.

But Quinn, who has claimed the Legislature’s budget has a $9.2 billion shortfall, appeared to be holding out for a balanced spending plan to avoid drastic cuts in social services spending. He has been pushing for an income tax increase.

Pennsylvania’s lawmakers were stuck on Governor Edward Rendell’s plan to raise the income tax rate, possibly pushing negotiations past the midnight deadline.

Sources:

“Cash-strapped states up against budget deadlines”
Jim Christie
Reuters, June 30, 2009

“California on the brink”
Lili Ladaga
Yahoo! News, June 30, 2009

States Raise Taxes On Oil And Natural Gas Production

Continuing on the topic of energy, I stumbled on a piece by the Wall Street Journal’s Ben Casselman yesterday in which he wrote revenue-starved states are hiking taxes on natural gas and oil production. Casselman said:

Cash-strapped states are considering raising taxes on oil production to plug yawning budget gaps, but they face strong resistance from oil companies, which warn the moves could lead to lost jobs and higher energy prices.

Lawmakers in Pennsylvania and California have proposed what are known as severance taxes on oil and natural gas produced in their states. A tax increase took effect in Arkansas at the beginning of the year, and Alaska last year raised its oil-production tax…

“Given the economy, any source of revenue is significant,” said Chuck Ardo, a spokesman for Pennsylvania Gov. Ed Rendell.

Mr. Rendell has proposed a 5% tax on natural gas produced in his state, which faces a one-year, $3.2 billion budget deficit. A legislative committee this week approved the measure, which requires approval by the full House of Representatives.

In California, Democrats are pushing a 9.9% severance tax to help close the state’s projected $24 billion deficit. But Gov. Arnold Schwarzenegger, who earlier this year supported adopting a severance tax, is now opposed, saying the state has raised taxes enough already.

Energy interests argue that higher taxes would lead companies to shift their drilling elsewhere, leading to lost jobs and lower tax revenue. And they say reduced drilling could lead to greater dependence on imported oil and higher energy prices.

Should Pennsylvania or California go through with their proposed severance taxes, Louisiana looks to welcome their oil and gas producers with open arms. Casselman added:

Some lawmakers in Louisiana want to take the opposite tack, in a bid to attract more drilling. The state House of Representatives recently approved a package of tax cuts targeted at certain high-cost forms of oil and gas production. Democratic Rep. Nickie Monica, the lead sponsor of one measure in the package, said he hopes to give Louisiana a competitive advantage at a time when other states are raising taxes. “We’re bucking a national trend,” he said.

Tax competition sucks, huh?

Source:

“States Consider Gas and Oil Levies”
Ben Casselman
Wall Street Journal, June 30, 2009

Obamageddon 2012

“In 2012 as we push forward, it IS Obamageddon. He’s bankrupting the nation, with these rescue plans, these buyout schemes, cap-and-trade, paying cash for clunkers, you name it…”

-Gerald Celente, trend strategist and founder of the Trends Research Institute, on the FOX Business Network’s “Happy Hour” program last Friday.

“Gerald Celente Obamageddon 2012”
YouTube Video Link

Barney Frank: Lower Lending Standards For Condo Buyers?

“There’s no trick to being a humorist when you have the whole government working for you”

-Will Rogers (American entertainer. 1879-1935)

Some people never learn. From the Wall Street Journal on Wednesday:

Back when the housing mania was taking off, Massachusetts Congressman Barney Frank famously said he wanted Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac to “roll the dice” in the name of affordable housing. That didn’t turn out so well, but Mr. Frank has since only accumulated more power. And now he is returning to the scene of the calamity — with your money. He and New York Representative Anthony Weiner have sent a letter to the heads of Fannie and Freddie exhorting them to lower lending standards for condo buyers.

You read that right. After two years of telling us how lax lending standards drove up the market and led to loans that should never have been made, Mr. Frank wants Fannie and Freddie to take more risk in condo developments with high percentages of unsold units, high delinquency rates or high concentrations of ownership within the development.

Fannie and Freddie have restricted loans to condo buyers in these situations because they represent a red flag that the developments — many of which were planned and built at the height of the housing bubble — may face financial trouble down the road. But never mind all that. Messrs. Frank and Weiner think, in all their wisdom and years of experience underwriting mortgages, that the new rules “may be too onerous.”

Rep. Barney Frank, June 27, 2005: No Housing Bubble
YouTube Video Link

Source:

“Barney the Underwriter”
Wall Street Journal, June 24, 2009

CBO Warns U.S. Long-Term Fiscal Health In Danger

The non-partisan Congressional Budget Office has come out with a new report warning that the nation’s long-term financial health is in jeopardy. From the Washington Post’s Lori Montgomery this morning:

The nation’s long-term budget outlook has darkened considerably over the past six months, and President Obama’s plan to extend an array of tax cuts and other policies adopted during the Bush administration has the potential to “create an explosive fiscal situation,” congressional budget analysts reported yesterday.

In a new report, the Congressional Budget Office found that extending the Bush administration tax cuts, reining in the alternative minimum tax and canceling a scheduled reduction in payments to Medicare doctors would dramatically slash tax collections at a time when federal spending would be “sharply rising.” The resulting budget gap would drive the nation’s debt over 100 percent of gross domestic product by 2023, the report says, and past 200 percent of GDP by the late 2030s.

Obama has not proposed to extend all of the Bush tax cuts, which are scheduled to expire in December 2010. But he would keep all cuts benefiting the middle class — a substantial portion of the total — and has advocated additional borrowing to cover the costs of that and other policy changes analyzed by the CBO…

Democratic lawmakers generally agree, and the budget resolution they adopted earlier this year assumes that many of the Bush tax cuts will be extended and future deficits will rise. Yesterday’s CBO report highlights the cost of that trade-off.

Montgomery pointed out that even if the extra funds were collected, the situation might be little improved. She wrote:

The news is not particularly good even if the government were to collect the extra money, primarily because of the rapidly rising cost of Social Security and federal health programs for the elderly and the poor. According to the CBO, the annual gap between spending and revenue would briefly drop below 2 percent of GDP in the next decade before rising to 5.6 percent in 2035, 8.3 percent in 2050, and nearly 18 percent in 2080. But the outlook is much worse if the tax cuts and other policies are extended, the CBO found: Annual deficits would never drop below 4 percent of GDP; they would approach 15 percent by 2035 and surpass 42 percent by 2080.

Already heavily in debt, the nation would be forced to borrow ever more massive sums to keep the government afloat, the CBO warns, with the national debt nearly 200 percent of the overall economy by 2035.

Source:

“CBO Paints Dire Portrait of Long-Term Revenue, Spending”
Lori Montgomery
Washington Post, June 26, 2009

Obama’s Doctor Questions Effectiveness Of ObamaCare

While I was in the Burlington, Wisconsin, area a few weeks ago, I brought my dad into town to get a haircut. At the shop, we struck up a conversation with the barber/hair stylist, who shared with us a funny story about a recent telephone marketing call. She received a phone call inquiring about her health insurance. The barber/stylist told the person on the other end of the line that she wasn’t interested as she was waiting for the “Obama plan” to take effect. Caught off guard, the telemarketer re-grouped and explained that “ObamaCare” wasn’t a sure thing, and even if it did happen, would take time to implement. The shop owner repeated that she intended to wait for the Obama plan, at which point the “courtesy” caller gave up.

While our amusing friend was just messing with the telemarketer in this case, I wonder how many others are placing their faith in ObamaCare to solve theirs, and the nation’s, health care woes? Lots of people are asking questions about the proposed overhaul. Including the President’s former doctor. From Forbes’ David Whelan on June 19:

David Scheiner, an internist based in the Chicago neighborhood of Hyde Park, has a diverse practice of lower-income adults from the nearby housing projects mixed with famous patients like U.S. Sen. Carol Mosely Braun, the late writer Studs Terkel and, most notably, President Barack Obama.

Scheiner, 71, was Obama’s doctor from 1987 until he entered the White House; he vouched for the then-candidate’s “excellent health” in a letter last year. He’s still an enthusiastic Obama supporter, but he worries about whether the health care legislation currently making its way through Congress will actually do any good, particularly for doctors like himself who practice general medicine. “I’m not sure he really understands what we face in primary care,” Scheiner says.

Scheiner takes a few other shots too. Looking at Obama’s team of health advisors, Scheiner doesn’t see anyone who’s actually in the trenches.

“I have a suspicion they pick people from the top echelon of medicine, people who write about it but haven’t been struggling in it,” he says.

Scheiner is critical of Obama’s pick for Health and Human Services secretary–Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, who used to work as the chief lobbyist for her state’s trial lawyers association.

“He doesn’t see all the pain, it’s so tragic out here,” he says. “Obama’s wonderful, but on this one I’m not sure if he’s getting the right input.”

How very reassuring…

Source:

“Obama’s Doctor Knocks ObamaCare”
David Whelan
Forbes, June 19, 2009

David Walker: Obama’s Tax Pledge ‘Ridiculous Promise’

“Let me tell it to you straight. The. Math. Politicians. Sell. Does. Not. Work. And if we don’t start dealing with the truth soon, this country could face dire consequences.”

-David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, October 2007

Before I closed shop late last night, I stumbled on the following from Bloomberg’s Brian Faler and Nicholas Johnston:

President Barack Obama said he is “confident” that he won’t have to raise taxes on most Americans to close the budget deficit as long as the economy picks up steam.

“One of the biggest variables in this whole thing is economic growth,” the president said in an interview with Bloomberg News at the White House. “If we are growing at a robust rate, then we can pay for the government that we need without having to raise taxes.”

Obama has repeatedly said he would keep his campaign pledge to cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans while rolling back tax breaks for households making more than $250,000 a year.

“I’m confident that we don’t have to raise taxes on ordinary working families,” he said.

Now, many will argue the U.S. President still needs to build up his “street credibility” on economic matters. It remains to be seen if President Obama, despite his vast experience in other areas, can grasp the multitude and degree of the financial difficulties at hand.

That being said, consider what someone who’s already achieved “street cred” has to say about the Obama campaign pledge to cut taxes for the “ordinary working families.”

The person I’m referring to here is David M. Walker, former Comptroller General of the United States (nation’s chief accountant), former head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO), and current President and CEO of The Peter G. Peterson Foundation.

I’ve been following Mr. Walker’s career for quite some time now. Back on June 20, 2007, I wrote:

The tremendous financial burden brought on by entitlements also frightens David Walker, who is basically the nation’s accountant-in-chief. Walker is touring the United States through the 2008 elections, and according to Bloomberg, is “talking to anybody who will listen about the fiscal black hole Washington has dug itself, the ‘demographic tsunami’ that will come when the baby boom generation begins retiring and the recklessness of borrowing money from foreign lenders to pay for the operation of the U.S. government.” His speaking tour includes economists and budget analysts from across the political spectrum. The message they are conveying is that if the U.S government continues to conduct business as usual in the coming years, the national debt ($8.8 trillion as of today) could reach $46 trillion or more, adjusted for inflation.

I added on February 26, 2008:

On February 15, David M. Walker, Comptroller General of the United States, announced his resignation as head of the U.S. Government Accountability Office (GAO). Since November 9, 1998, Walker has served as the nation’s chief accountability officer, leading the GAO in its mission to help improve the performance and accountability of the federal government for the benefit of the American people. Back on February 15, Richard Cowan wrote in Reuters that:

Walker repeatedly urged Congress to waste no time in reforming massive government programs, such as health care for the elderly, which will grow significantly as the U.S. population ages.

“The picture I will lay out for you… is not a pretty one and it’s getting worse with the passage of time,” the blunt-talking Walker told Congress more than once.

Despite those warnings, Congress and the White House have yet to begin cooperating on how to tackle the huge growth in health care and retirement benefit costs…

Yesterday, Bill Donoghue from MarketWatch had this to say about Walker’s departure:

Facing indifference on the Hill and unrealistic spending promises, Walker is resigning with five years still remaining in his term to head the newly formed Peter G. Peterson Foundation. Peterson, senior chairman of The Blackstone Group and Commerce secretary in the Nixon administration, has pledged an astounding startup budget for the foundation of $1 billion.

That money will attack what the foundation considers “the most substantial economic, fiscal and other sustainability challenges of our current age” — including federal entitlement programs, health care, unprecedented trade and budget deficits, low savings rates, mounting foreign debt, soaring energy consumption, an uncompetitive educational system, and the proliferation of nuclear warfare materials. Maybe Congress will listen this time.

The departing Comptroller General told Reuters:

As Comptroller General of the United States and head of the GAO, there are real limitations on what I can do and say in connection with key public policy issues, especially issues that directly relate to GAO’s client — the Congress.

My new position will provide me with the ability and resources to more aggressively address a range of current and emerging challenges facing our country.

MarketWatch’s Donoghue lamented:

This sounds to me like the ultimate sell signal on America…

When the nation’s best-informed watchdog resigns and few are acting on his recommendations on his “Fiscal Wake-Up Tour,” it’s time to reconsider over-optimistic domestic stock investments and look elsewhere, or bet against the U.S. market.

So, what is this dedicated public servant saying these days?

This past Monday, Mr. Walker appeared on CNBC’s “Squawk Box” and said the following about the Obama campaign pledge to cut taxes for 95 percent of working Americans:

His pledge to not raise taxes on people making less than $250,000 was totally unrealistic, especially given $1.8 trillion-plus deficits, and growing structural deficits going forward…

It was a ridiculous promise. I don’t know why he made it. Politicians are good at making these type of promises during campaigns. Anybody that passed basic math would have known that you cannot end up dealing with our structural problems in our deficits without having more revenues.

David M. Walker Interview
CNBC Video Link

Sources:

“Obama Says ‘Robust’ Growth Will Prevent Tax Increases (Update1)”
Brian Faler, Nicholas Johnston
Bloomberg, June 16, 2009

David Walker Interview
CNBC, June 15, 2009

Gun And Ammo Sales Still Brisk

The other weekend my dad and I were at the local hardware/rental/sporting goods/you name it we got it store in Burlington, Wisconsin, buying bait and tackle for fishing. While waiting for our minnow bucket to be filled, I asked a salesperson, who was leafing through a firearms catalog, how gun and ammunition sales were going. Times are good, he said. When asked about ammo sales in particular, he said ammunition was flying off the shelves. I told him that I’d recently heard of gun dealers in the Chicagoland area that were rationing out ammo, limiting purchases to two boxes in some cases. At this point, my dad joined the conversation and asked, “Why are people buying up all this ammunition?” The salesman’s response?

“They’re scared.”

Back in April, I discussed the booming sales of firearms and ammunition. And business still appears to be brisk these days. From Jim Meenan of the South Bend Tribune (Indiana) this past weekend:

Guns sit under clear glass cases or are mounted one after another on walls. Guns — about 2,000 of them —- are on display at the spacious Midwest Gun Exchange on Grape Road, small pistols costing about $150 to assault weapons in the $1,000 range, and everything in between.

“I think a lot of people have the misconception of what a gun shop looks like and what kind of people who work there look like and what kind of customers are coming into a place like this,” says Brad Rupert, general manager at Midwest Gun Exchange.

He credits that open atmosphere in the new 8,000-square-foot store — along with its fall opening coinciding with the presidential election — leading to a big increase in sales.

The possibility and then the reality of Barack Obama becoming president, along with a Democrat-controlled Congress, have provided the industry a boost seldom seen, both locally and nationally.” The word is that he (Obama) is the greatest salesman the gun industry has ever had,” said Roger Hawn of Goshen, who shops at both Midwest shops.

Statistics from the FBI’s National Instant Criminal Background Check System would seem to back that statement.

Requests for NICS checks went up nearly 450,000 nationally in November of last year compared to November 2007. In December, the increase was nearly 300,000 for the month. Even in October, as the campaign heated up, NICS checks rose about 158,000 over October 2007.

NICS checks are required on dealer sales of both new and used guns, as well as for people redeeming guns from a pawn shop. NICS checks are also conducted for firearms and explosives-related licenses and permits, so the following numbers also include those.

Substantial increases in NICS checks have continued through May in comparison with 2008 numbers. In January, the increase was more than 270,000. It was more than 235,000 in February, more than 300,000 in March, about 285,000 in April and more than 135,000 in May.

By contrast, most 2008 monthly numbers were up over 2007 numbers from as little as about 27,000 in June to as much as about 133,000 in July.

“Industrywide they say it’s a 40 to 50 percent (increase) at least, just since Obama got elected,” Rupert said.

He says it’s mostly attributed to the fear that Obama will reinstate gun control legislation. The last assault weapons ban occurred from 1994 to 2004, and the Bush administration opted not to seek its renewal.

“People are worried about anybody passing any gun legislation or restrictions on ammunition or higher taxes on ammunition,” Rupert said. But other factors are at work, too, Rupert said, such as the crime rate, and in his case, the new store and its size. “You’ve got people who believe they need a gun on themselves, whether in their home or in person or out in public,” he said.

TJ Repaich, manager of Midwest Gun & Range in Elkhart, says his store has seen a 25 percent increase in first-time gun purchases by women, too.

Widows who just lost their husbands, as well young couples, all add to the increased demand, Rupert said.

“You put those factors together and a new store and location, and it’s done really well for us,” he said.

Meenan also addressed the talk of ammunition shortages. He wrote:

What has resulted, though, is an ammunition shortage. Repaich, of Midwest Gun & Range, said he probably went about two months without .380 ACP rounds and also has run out of 9 mm rounds for a very short period. An increase in demand, two wars going on, and the increasing numbers of federal law enforcement officers are some of the reasons, he believes.

Leonard Grummell of Len’s Ammo Shop in South Bend adds to that Obama’s efforts as an Illinois state senator at gun control.

Rupert said the fear of legislation on the “serialization” of ammunition has also contributed.

Serialization of ammunition refers to the law making sellers take a person’s license and the serial number on the bullets to keep a record of it, in theory allowing crimes to be more easily traced.

Not wanting to deal with that possible hassle has helped fuel the shortage.” Ammunition is very difficult to find,” Hawn said. “Nine mm handgun ammunition is virtually nonexistent. It’s a hoarding situation, and it’s escalating.”

Hawn thinks it could be the government’s way of banning guns.

“If you have a gun and you don’t have any ammo, it’s basically a ban,” he said.

Source:

“Gun boom: Sales up, ammo scarce”
Jim Meenan
South Bend Tribune, June 14, 2009

‘Warm’ Welcome For Speaker Pelosi In Houston

“The first time I didn’t feel it, but this time I feel it, and I can’t deny the fact that you like me, right now, you like me!”

-Actress Sally Field, 1985 Academy Award acceptance speech

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi paid a visit to Houston’s Wortham Center last Friday night. From the Houston Chronicle’s Carolyn Shropshire on June 12:

Pelosi, the first woman speaker of the House was in Houston to address the Progressive Forum, a nonprofit civic speaking organization. She was on message all evening, peppering her remarks with references to the “three pillars” of the Democrat agenda — education, health care and energy. Those pillars, she added, are essential to creating jobs and promoting economic recovery.

Those who attended paid $19 to $144 to hear her answer questions about international and national affairs and discuss her book, Know Your Power: A Message to America’s Daughters.

And outside of the Wortham Center, about 600 of these “Sons” and “Daughters,” many of them angry over Washington’s handling of the economy and financial crisis, gave a “warm” welcome to Speaker Pelosi…

YouTube Video Link

Source:

“Pelosi: Halting costs key in health care”
Carolyn Shropshire
Houston Chronicle, June 12, 2009

Congress Scrutinized For Potential Conflicts-Of-Interest

Washington lawmakers are receiving more attention these days for possible conflicts-of-interest relating to the taxpayer bailouts and the proposed health care system overhaul. From the Washington Post’s Paul Kane and Carol D. Leonnig last week:

Top House lawmakers had considerable holdings in major financial institutions that took billions of dollars in taxpayer bailouts at the end of last year, according to annual financial disclosure reports released yesterday.

From stock holdings to retirement funds to mortgages, more than 20 House leaders and members of the House Financial Services Committee had large personal stakes in the Wall Street powerhouses whose collapse last year led to an unprecedented government intervention in the marketplace. In some instances those lawmakers, like millions of other investors, sold their holdings at steep losses while others retained the stocks at greatly diminished value.

House Speaker Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) and her husband lost hundreds of thousands of dollars investing in American International Group, which has received $170 billion in government loans and cash injections, making it by far the largest recipient of federal bailout dollars. Republican Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) and his wife held stock, retirement plans and other investments worth at least $183,000 and as much as $495,000 in firms benefiting from federal government rescue efforts, including Goldman Sachs and Morgan Stanley.

At least 18 members of the House Financial Services Committee — which oversees the banking and housing industries at the core of the economic meltdown — held stock last year in firms that received federal bailout assistance, according to a review of the forms that were available yesterday.

As President Obama pushes his universal health care program, more potential conflicts-of-interest involving lawmakers have surfaced. From the Associated Press’ Larry Margasak and Sharon Theimer last Friday:

Influential senators working to overhaul the nation’s health care system have investments and family ties with some of the biggest names in the industry. The wife of Sen. Chris Dodd, the lawmaker in charge of writing the Senate’s bill, sits on the boards of four health care companies.

Members of both parties have industry connections, including Democrats Jay Rockefeller and Tom Harkin, in addition to Dodd, and Republicans Tom Coburn, Judd Gregg, John Kyl and Orrin Hatch, financial reports showed Friday.

Jackie Clegg Dodd, wife of the Connecticut Democrat, is on the boards of Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc., Cardiome Pharma Corp., Brookdale Senior Living and Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals…

Other publicly available documents show Mrs. Dodd last year was one of the most highly compensated non-employee members of the Javelin Pharmaceuticals Inc. board, on which she has served since 2004. She earned $32,000 in fees and $109,587 in stock option awards last year, according to the company’s SEC filings.

Mrs. Dodd earned $79,063 in fees from Cardiome in its last fiscal year, while Brookdale Senior Living gave her $122,231 in stock awards in 2008, their SEC filings show. She earned no income from her post as a director for Pear Tree Pharmaceuticals but holds up to $15,000 in stock in Pear Tree, which describes itself as a development-stage pharmaceutical company focused on the needs of aging women.

Sources:

“Lawmakers Invested in Bailed-Out Firms”
Paul Kane, Carol D. Leonnig
Washington Post, June 11, 2009

“Key health care senators have industry ties”
Larry Margasak, Sharon Theimer
Associated Press, June 12, 2009