4-7-09
Need cash? Move to a town that prints their own!
A small but growing number of cash-strapped communities are printing their own money.
Borrowing from a Depression-era idea, they are aiming to help consumers make ends meet and support struggling local businesses.
The systems generally work like this: Businesses and individuals form a network to print currency. Shoppers buy it at a discount — say, 95 cents for $1 value — and spend the full value at stores that accept the currency.
A seething federal judge dismissed the corruption conviction of former Alaska Sen. Ted Stevens on Tuesday and took the rare and serious step of ordering a criminal investigation into prosecutors who poisoned the case.
“In nearly 25 years on the bench, I’ve never seen anything approaching the mishandling and misconduct that I’ve seen in this case,” U.S. District Judge Emmet Sullivan said.
Sullivan appointed a special prosecutor to investigate Justice Department lawyers who repeatedly withheld evidence from defense attorneys and the judge during the monthlong trial. Stevens was convicted in October of lying on Senate forms about home renovations and gifts he received from wealthy friends.
Alaska Governor Sarah Palin goes after Obama over missile defense cuts.
Responding to North Korea’s missile test, Gov. Sarah Palin reaffirmed Alaska’s commitment to protecting America from rogue nation missile attacks, according to a statement her office released Monday.
“I am deeply concerned with North Korea’s development and testing program which has clear potential of impacting Alaska, a sovereign state of the United States, with a potentially nuclear armed warhead,” Palin said.
Democrat Al Franken’s lead in Minnesota’s U.S. Senate race has grown to 312 votes now that hundreds of absentee ballots have been added to the counting. A three-judge panel ruled that the rejected absentee ballots should be opened and counted after hearing weeks of testimony in a lawsuit brought by Republican Norm Coleman.
Thomas Sowell gives some random thoughts concerning the Obama administration.
Socialists believe in government ownership of the means of production. Fascists believed in government control of privately owned businesses, which is much more the style of this government. That way, politicians can intervene whenever they feel like it and then, when their interventions turn out badly, summon executives from the private sector before Congress and denounce them on nationwide television.
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Uncle Sam wants your old gas-guzzling SUV. But he may be low-balling the price.
Now that President Barack Obama and Congress are in the auto business, the interests of Detroit and Washington are lining up in ways Americans have never seen before. One result of this 21st-century twist on the old line about “what’s good for General Motors” is a flurry of interest on Capitol Hill in the idea of a government-funded “cash for clunkers” program.
Pakistani and U.S. officials on Tuesday emphasized the need for trust between their countries to counter the threat from al Qaeda and the Taliban, but Pakistan’s foreign minister reiterated his government’s opposition to American airstrikes on its soil.
U.S. envoy Richard Holbrooke and Adm. Mike Mullen of the U.S. Joint Chiefs of Staff were visiting Pakistan on the heels of President Barack Obama’s announcement of plans to reinvigorate the war in Afghanistan by sending more troops to the region and increasing aid to Pakistan.
Obama picks gay rights activist, Catholic criticizer to join his faith based advisory council.
President Barack Obama has named to the federal government’s faith-based initiative a gay-rights activist who, last month, described Pope Benedict XVI and certain Catholic bishops as “discredited leaders” because of their opposition to same-sex marriage. Harry Knox, who is a newly appointed member of Obama’s Advisory Council on Faith-based and Neighborhood Partnerships, is the director of the religion and faith program at the Human Rights Campaign, a homosexual activist group.
Since arriving in Washington, Rep. Walt Minnick has been a reliable “no” vote on the Democratic agenda. The Idaho freshman has voted against a financial industry bailout, the Democratic-sponsored budget, the omnibus spending bill and President Barack Obama’s economic stimulus.
That wouldn’t raise eyebrows, except for the fact that Minnick is a Democrat.
His party colleagues seem to understand. Though he has bucked leadership on practically every significant vote to hit the House floor, there is widespread recognition that it may be the best way to keep his solidly conservative seat in Democratic hands.
Some lawmakers are calling anew for the U.S. to relax its immigration laws — not to provide sanctuary to illegal immigrants, but to ensure statistical accuracy. The calls come as the Census Bureau prepares to kick off the 2010 Census. Critics argue that unless the government is willing to relax immigration laws, millions of people — afraid to their share their personal information — will be left out of the count.