The Washington Times reports the era of big government has returned with a vengeance, in the form of the largest federal work force in modern history.

The Obama administration says the government will grow to 2.15 million employees this year, topping 2 million for the first time since President Clinton declared that “the era of big government is over” and joined forces with a Republican-led Congress in the 1990s to pare back the federal work force.  [Read More]

According to Townhall, a Senior Intelligence Officials instructed Congress today that Al-Qaeda is expected to attempt an attack on the United States in the next three to six months.

CIA Director Leon Panetta insists the terrorist organization is deploying operatives to the United States to carry out new attacks from inside the country, including “clean” recruits with a negligible trail of terrorist contacts.  [Read More]

According to the Wall Street Journal, the Senate voted 70-30 to reappoint Ben Bernanke for a second four-year term as chairman of the Federal Reserve.

Democrats have been running around frantically pushing the ‘necessary’ re-confirmation of Bernanke (just as they did with the Porkulus, Healthcare, Climategate, etc.) while promoting little examination of his effect on the American economy.  Sen. Robert Menendez, (D) New Jersey rambled a fearful message today stating, “”To vote against confirmation could unnerve investors and exacerbate economic uncertainty.”

Republican Sen. Richard Shelby of Alabama, the senior Republican on the Senate Banking Committee reminded the American people that “Bernanke fiddled while our markets burned.”  [Read More]

The markets responded quite contrary to Sen. Menendez’ remarks with the dramatic plunge upon news of the Bernanke re-confirmation.  Americans and investors alike understand that a vote for Bernanke is a vote for more Bailouts and further Government intervention into the private sector and their daily lives.  Until midterm elections later this year, one can only wonder how much more destruction the Obama Administration and Democrats in Congress will unleash on the American economy and way of life.

From Michelle Malkin at Townhall:

There are more loopholes in President Obama’s proposed “spending freeze” than in an Olympic volleyball net. Gargantuan government entitlements (Social Security, Medicare and Medicaid) are exempt. A half-trillion in unspent stimulus money is exempt. Foreign aid is exempt. The Democrats’ proposed $154 billion jobs bill (Stimulus II) is exempt.

Pet federal education programs will be exempt (including $4 billion for the White House “Race to the Top” standards initiative and an additional $1.35 billion he just requested in the 2011 budget). Green jobs spending will be exempt. (Obama proposed $10 billion in new clean energy spending earlier this month.) Electorally driven tax-credit expansions will be exempt. The health care takeover plan is not included. As even The New York Times reported, the “estimated $250 billion in savings over 10 years would be less than 3 percent of the roughly $9 trillion in additional deficits the government is expected to accumulate over that time.”  [Read More]

ASSOCIATED PRESS, SEOUL – North Korea fired artillery rounds toward its disputed sea border with South Korea on Wednesday, prompting a barrage of warning shots from the South’s military and raising tensions on the divided peninsula.  No casualties or damage was reported following the incident.

North Korea fired about 30 artillery rounds into the sea from its western coast and the South immediately responded with 100 shots from a marine base on an island near the sea border, an officer at the Joint Chiefs of Staff in Seoul said. The North said it would continue to fire rounds.  [Read More]

(H/T The Washington Times)

Nearly one year after Barack Obama put the ink down to sign his stimulus (the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, ARRA) into law, the CBO has ‘updated’ its estimate on how much it will cost. The unsurprisingly more expensive new estimate will cost taxpayers another $75 billion.

When ARRA was being considered, the Congressional Budget Office (CBO) and the staff of the Joint Committee on taxation (JCT) estimated that it would increase budget deficits by a total of $787 billion… it appears that ARRA will have larger effects in later years than originally estimated. All told, CBO now anticipates that the law will increase deficits by $862 billion.  [Read More]

(H/T Townhall)

BOSTON –Yahoo News has reported an epic upset in liberal Massachusetts. Republican Scott Brown rode a wave of voter anger toward President Obama today to defeat Democrat Martha Coakley in a U.S. Senate election that left President Barack Obama’s health care overhaul in doubt and capped off his first year of failures in office.  The response by today’s voters acts as a clear referendum on the President and his Agenda.

Immediately, Brown will become the 41st Republican in the 100-member Senate, which could allow the GOP to block the president’s health care legislation and the rest of Obama’s agenda. Democrats needed Coakley to win for a 60th vote to thwart Republican filibusters.  [Read More]

(H/T The Drudge Report)

BOSTON, Mass.—With the leftist agenda hanging in the balance, President Barack Obama plunged Sunday into the hotly contested Massachusetts Senate race, urging voters to rally around the drowning Democratic candidate Martha Coakley.  Republican candidate Scott Brown, a state senator, said the president’s visit was a result of a “distress call to Washington” by the Coakley campaign.

Mr. Brown is riding a grassroots wave fueled by public discontent, and is appealing to independents, who make up more than 50% of the state’s registered voters, as well as Republicans.   The unexpectedly tight race has raised concern among Democrats that the party may be in for a trouncing this Fall, when all seats in the House and one third of those in the Senate are up for grabs.  Democrats control the Senate with a 60-vote majority, enough to override any Republican veto. A win by Mr. Brown would alter the numbers and throw the White House’s agenda into disarray.

On Sunday the nonpartisan Cook Political Report, which closely follows national campaigns, said the Massachusetts race remains “very much of a toss up,” with Mr. Brown “holding onto a very narrow, single-digit lead.”  The report added, “Given the vagaries of voter turnout, particularly in lower participation level special elections, this race could still go either way, but we put a finger on the scale for Brown.”   [Read More]

According to the Telegraph, Tim Geithner’s Federal Reserve Bank of New York urged AIG (American International Group) to remain silent on $105B paid to banks including Goldman Sachs and Deutsche Bank.

A series of emails obtained and made public by Congressman Darrell Issa reveal that AIG had planned to inform investors in a regulatory filing published on December 24, 2008.  AIG had paid counter-party banks owed money at a rate of 100 cents on the dollar.

However, according to the emails, an official from the NY Fed crossed out the reference ahead of publication, and there was no mention of the payments, which came to light five months later, in the filing.  “It appears that the New York Fed deliberately pressured AIG to restrict and delay the disclosure of important information,” said Congressman Issa. [Read More]

So much for transparency in Washington during this new age of ‘hope and change.’  It’s about time for our personal tax-cheat Tim Geithner to receive his walking papers as he has done nothing to end the recession, and at the same time has done everything in his power to flourish it.

According to the Washington Post, Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) will announce his retirement from the Senate tomorrow:

Word of Dodd’s retirement plans comes after months of speculation about his political future, his faltering poll numbers and a growing sense among the Democratic establishment that he could not win a sixth term in the Senate.

After 20 years in the Senate it’s about time!  Sadly, Dodd’s departure will likely put his solid blue district in safe Democrat hands. But we can still celebrate the demise of a corrupt Democratic dinosaur, and who knows? we might just have a chance.