According to The Politico, Waggoner is stepping because Obama demanded it:

The Obama administration asked Rick Waggoner, the chairman and CEO of General Motors, to step down and he agreed, a White House official said.
The White House confirmed Waggoner was leaving at the government's behest after The Associated Press reported his immediate departure, without giving a reason.

On Monday, President Obama is to unveil his plans for the auto industry, including a response to a request for additional funds by GM and Chrysler.

Industry sources had said the White House planned very tough medicine, which turned out to be an understatement. And it went to the very top. The measures to be imposed by the government will have a dramatic effect on workers, unions, suppliers, retirees and the communities where plants are located, the sources said.

       "Our testing has shown not only can we hit a bullet with a bullet, we can hit a spot on the bullet with a bullet. The technology has caught up," Obering said Wednesday. (Lt. Gen. Trey OberingLt. Gen. Trey Obering in giving advice to the then president elect)

During her recent visit to Mexico, U.S. Secretary of State Hillary Clinton made an unexpected stop at the Basilica of Our Lady of Guadalupe and left a bouquet of white flowers “on behalf of the American people,” after asking who painted the famous image.

 

Here's more on the exchange:

 

Msgr. Monroy took Mrs. Clinton to the famous image of Our Lady of Guadalupe, which had been previously lowered from its usual altar for the occasion.

After observing it for a while, Mrs. Clinton asked “who painted it?” to which Msgr. Monroy responded “God!”

Welcome word just in from the Washington Post's ever-alert Al Kamen that the global war on terror is over, gone, kaput, finito.

Kamen confirms persistent recent reports that war has been declared on at least the term "global war on terror" as well as another suspiciously Republican phrase -- "long war." They've been ordered ended internally by the Obama administration. So we can all relax and maybe even release everyone from Guantanamo.

Kamen obtained an e-mail from Dave Reidel in the Office of Security Review saying, "This Administration prefers to avoid using the term 'Long War' or 'Global War on Terror' (GWOT). Please use 'Overseas Contingency Operation.' " Reidel asked memo recipients to spread the word to speechwriters and others.

Kamen quotes a spokesman for the Office of Management and Budget as denying the existence of such a linguistic guidance memo. (Los Angeles Times)

On top of that, as reported by the Washington Times, the president is without fanfare applying gun-control ideology to homeland security by scrapping the federal firearms program, which allows some 12,000 airline pilots to carry guns with them in their cockpit during flight. Pilots say that already the approval process for authorizing pilots to carry guns has slowed considerably. (Investors Business Daily)

“No, no. I have been practicing,” Obama said. “I bowled a 129. It's like — it was like Special Olympics, or something."

"Obama seeks to recover AIG bonuses"
Government OK'd payouts and now faces backlash
Edmund L. Andrews and Jackie Calmes
WASHINGTON

 

Presi- dent Barack Obama and his top economic advisers scrambled to calm a nationwide furor yesterday over bonuses paid at American International Group, even as administration officials acknowledged they had known about the issue for months.

One day after the economic advisers insisted that their hands had been tied by contracts requiring the payments, Obama ordered the Treasury Department to "pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses." "In the last six months, AIG has received substantial sums from the U.S. Treasury," Obama said. "How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" Obama made the comment as he announced a plan to ease a credit squeeze afflicting small businesses by purchasing up to $15 billion worth of securities that are linked to small-business loans. But the news was overshadowed by anger from lawmakers and growing criticism of the bonuses.

White House and Treasury officials offered only a general sense of how they would carry out Obama's order and few explanations for why they had not acted earlier.

     Hmm, another high ranking Democrat has been caught with her hands in the cookie jar. You know, its okay if you are a Democrat not to pay taxes- oh where to start: Daschle, Geithner, Rangel et al. Now there is word that Representative Maxine Waters, never one to shy away from  controversy, called for a meeting regarding bank bailout funds. This from the San Diego Union Tribune this morning:

Top banking regulators were taken aback late last year when a Democrat congresswoman from Ios Angeles helped set up a meeting in which the chief executive of a bank with financial ties to her family asked them for up to $50 million in special bailout funds, Treasury officials said.

Rep. Maxine Waters requested the meeting in Septem- ber on behalf of executives at OneUnited, one of the nation's largest blackowned banks.

Waters' husband, Sidney Williams, had served on the bank's board until early last year and has owned at least $250,000 of stock in the institution.

     I guess when you are a Democrat you can do no wrong, being held accountable for one's actions is never required. It is rather disgusting that those such as Congressman Rangel can get away with their, there is no other way than to describe them as scofflaws, offenses. When you are a republican, no matter who and what the offense you are hung out to dry, first by the MSM and then by the GOP and ultimately held accountable to their office; many losing their power and seats.  I guess their really is no reason to cry double standard, as it falls upon deaf ears.

     Ah, I enjoy when my words are echoed by an editorial board, my hometown to boot. The article below is from the editorial  board of the San Diego Union:

"Market’s message " Sell-offs a sign Obama should refocus, San Diego Union Tribune, March 7, 2009 For most of us, it is way too early to assess President Barack Obama’s per formance in of fice. But not so on Wall Street, where investors are voting with their wallets. Since Obama took office on Jan. 20, the Dow Jones Industrial Average has dropped a heart-stopping 20 percent. That is not exactly a ringing declaration of confidence, either in Obama’s leadership or ability or in the likelihood that his policies will help pull the countr y out of the recession. No wonder many Obama supporters are desperately trying to label the current economic crisis as the Bush recession, as if Obama hasn’t contributed in any way to our plight. After all, they say, the president has only been in office a short time. Of course, that doesn’t stop Obama supporters from crediting him for what they think he is doing right. Obama himself recently tried to play down the significance of the Dow plunge by comparing stock averages to public opinion polls, since they both go up and down. That sort of rhetoric might satisfy the hyperpartisans in the Democratic Party, but it’s just not accurate or fair. Clearly, the market is trying to tell us something with its sell-off, and the message could be that Obama needs to concentrate on fixing the economy and stop trying to fix every one of the country’s problems at once. Especially when the administration is shorthanded. Treasury Secretar y T im Geithner hasn’t had any top deputies confirmed by the Senate, and two candidates for top Treasury Department jobs, Annette Nazareth and Caroline Atkinson, this week abruptly withdrew their names from consideration. Add to this lingering questions about whether the Obama administration will soon push through another banking bailout, and some oddsmakers on Wall Street already are betting that Geithner could join the ranks of the employed by year’s end. That is never a good sign.

    My previous post: The Recession Blame:Game- It Now Belongs to Obama/Pelosi/Reid
It is not enough to simply label something, Washington now needs to get away from pointing fingers and begin to solve somw problems. The time is to stimulate the economy, it is not time to attack business, nor institute socialist policies. The recession, which has dragged longer than the average recession, is being used for political payback and we can see the socialist tendencies in the triumvirate Obama/Pelosi/Reid are going full tilt with both the payback and leftist social policies more akin to the failed Eastern Bloc countries.
     I am wondering how many will take to using the term United Socialist States of America, there are 3.4 million hits! It is a fait acompli. I saw a post last night from a commenter that should be heeded. Afterall, during the election campaign of 2008 all conservative bloggers and commenters (the Limbaughs of the world) argued that relationships matter.

"War is not the best engine for us to resort to; nature has given us one in our commerce, which if properly managed, will be a better instrument for obliging the interested nations of Europe to treat us with justice."

--Thomas Jefferson, letter to Thomas Pickney, 29 May 1797

     The newest report on jobs was released this morning. The jobs report, as reported by the Labor Department, shows   651,000 jobs lost in the month of February, and the scary part of the numbers is that each time a new statistic is reported there are major adjustments to prior months' job losses. The unemployment rate has hit 8.1%, additionally, 4.4 million workers are now unemployed, with 2.6 million occurring in the last 4 months. The source of these numbers are from the Labor Department. The table below shows the number of jobs lost by month:

February	651,000
January	655,000
December	681,000

  Below is the steady progression of the unemployment rate, beginning in Jan. 2008- to current:

Year	Jan	Feb	Mar	Apr	May	Jun	Jul	Aug	Sep	Oct	Nov	Dec

2008	4.9	4.8	5.1	5.0	5.5	5.6	5.8	6.2	6.2	6.6	6.8	7.2
2009	7.6	8.1

   ^{Source: Bureau of Labor Statistics Data
(http://data.bls.gov/PDQ/servlet/SurveyOutputServlet?data_tool=latest_numbers&series_id=LNS14000000)
Something is fluky with the Townhall site.}

      I am now prepared to say that this recession no longer belongs to Bush. We are now well into the Obama Administration's responsibility, and I truly believe the troika of Obama/Pelosi/Reid bought the responibilty with the first porkulus bill.  I believe, as does the stock market, that what is being done to the American taxpayer and to businesses is nothing short of thievery. The total number of unemployed is at 12.5 million, a number not seen since December 1983, could we see even greater numbers of unemployed?
     With President Obama's newest budget, indeed, more people will become unemployed. The porkulus has done nothing to rouse the American economy from its formidable hibernation. Okay, I will say that there must be at least 6 months of passing in order to see results, but, unarguably, porkulus has done nothing for instilling any confidence, either in the American public (note Consumer Confidence)or her businesses (note additional layoffs pending). The Obama/Pelosi/Reid sold porkulus as the best possible course of action in order to stimulate the economy, and it had to be done now, or else dire consequences would rule the day.
     I am no economist, but I see no end to the recession any time soon. Most recession's last 7 months, and we are now at that point. I am, however, an average Joe (actually Banker Eric), I want the government out of my pocket and out of my decision making process. I posted yesterday a couple of headlines yesterday, and I truly believe that Obama/Pelosi/Reid are moving America toward socialism. I have dubbed it, certainly not the first to do so, the United Socialist States of America. We are going to have Universal Health Care shoved down our throats, an new Cram Down mortgage legislation,  a VP that speaks to the AFL/CIO behind closed doors- political payback. I am getting tired of how bad the leadership has been.

Update: Headline News Around the Nation of the United Socialist States of America

•  From the Nationalized Banking System:, Comrade Vikram Pandit, (CEO Citigroup) has gone into seclusion following further deterioration of the stock as it falls bellow $1.00 a share...
• From the soon to be Nationalized Auto Industry, Comrade Rick Wagoner (CEO General Motors), warns that his company may not make it through 2009 without going bankrupt Chapter 11
  
• From the Nationalized Insurance System: Comrade Robert Willumstad (CEO AIG) pleads with Democrats as shares of AIG plunge below $1.00
• From the New York Stock Exchange: Markets continue plunging to depths not seen in decades, is panic soon too follow?
• The ever so loquacious Vice President meets today behind closed doors with the biggest donor of the political campaign the AFL/CIO- so much for transparency, I seem to remember the vilification VP Cheney took when meeting behind closed doors
  
• President Barrack Obama made clear recently that the US stock must be a good buy, as shares are at a bargain
• Nationalized healthcare- already done in the porkulus bill, a government bureau will now look at practices, surgeries, medications, treatments for patients and tell whether or not it is efficient, also provided in porkulus the electronic medical record keeping - task force put together to look at how to have a single payer system, paid by the USSofA
  

    The stock markets in the United Socialist States of America have plummeted by as much as 45% since President Obama became the clear victor against Senator John McCain. I wonder, are we still getting the Change That We Can Believe in? The spending bill, er sorry stimulus bill, full of pork- thus porkulus- seems not to have had an effect on the forward looking stock markets. The Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, rolled out a plan to bailout mortgage holders that are upside down in their mortgages (meaning they owe more on the loan than what the home is worth), perhaps in foreclosure, markets still continue their free fall. Perhaps, the change we can believe in will roll the stock market back to the beginning of the Reagan Era- erasing all the gains. Then we can begin anew with the newly minted United Socialist States of America.

     Ho boy am I still in awe...everywhere I look in grocery lines, at the newsstand, at the bookstore, all I see are books on President Obama, magazine covers, and more.  Under President Obama the United States government will spend more than all the other administrations, combined. Unheard of...

     I have to go put my head in my hole, and catch my breath.