Team Obama has done their best impersonation of Willy Wonka's famed "Strike That, Reverse It" on TARP Funding. Now we can be assured that the Administration will say their plan worked and now they don't need to control the banks like this is a dictatorship - and the Washington Post does its best to cover - but the real reason for the pull-back is buried in the piece.

The Obama administration plans to announce as soon as today that some of the nation's largest banks can repay billions in federal aid, but some officials caution that the show of progress is being underwritten by multiple layers of less visible government support.

Through cheap loans, debt guarantees and a promise that big banks will not be allowed to fail, these officials say the government has created an artificial environment in which profits and stock prices have rebounded, helping banks in recent weeks to raise about $50 billion from private investors.

The money allows the strongest banks to return federal aid provided at the peak of the fall financial crisis, but few banks have expressed eagerness for the government to end the other forms of support, creating concern that these programs will be habit-forming and more difficult to terminate.

So that is Team Obama's story. Now, here is the real reason:

In recent months, more banks have sought permission to return the money, to avoid restrictions such as limits on executive pay and to show renewed strength. . . .

Still, almost no prominent voices have raised opposition to the repayments. Congress is eager to pull away from an unpopular program . . . .

The American people don't want the Federal Government deciding who gets loans, setting bankers salaries, and meddling in private banking transactions. The economy is still in the tank and yet they are scrapping the program. Congress is up for reelection next year and they are undoubtedly hearing an earful from their constituents on this Socialist thuggery.

And by the way, the lefties getting thumped in European elections today can't help but serve as a nice wake-up call.

It took only 5 months and nearly 3 million lost jobs for Obama's approval index rating to drop 30 points. According to the latest Rasmussen Reports Presidential Tracking Poll Obama has finally hit his highest level of strong disapproval and the lowest overall rating yet recorded:

In other fun polling news, that evil Darth Cheney is apparently more popular than Nancy! According to a May 29-31 Gallup Poll, 37% of Americans have a favorable view of Cheney and 34% have a favorable view of Pelosi.

Thank you Government Motors!
Courtesy of Iowahawk

California faces a $24.3 billion deficit and a looming cash crisis that jeopardizes its ability to pay its day-to-day bills. However after the Governor presided over a relatively unusual joint session of the Legislature to discuss the budget crisis, the budget isn't necessarily the topic de jure.

After taking time to discuss the mandatory sterilization of pets and the issue of "milk pooling" the California Legislature will discuss a democratic proposal to open the possibility of parole to inmates convicted of special circumstance murder.

Under California law, an offender as young as 16 convicted of special circumstance murder can be sentenced to life without parole. Currently more than 250 California inmates are locked up without possibility of parole for crimes they committed before the age of 18.

Senator Leeland Yee (D-San Francisco) wants to change all of that. Today the California Senate will hear Senator Yee's SB 399 a bill which would open the possibility of parole to inmates who were sentenced to life before age 18.

The penalty of life without the possibility of parole for these juvenile offenders was put into law by Prop. 115, which was approved by the voters in 1990.

Let us be very clear: The sentence, life without the possibility of parole (LWPOP), is reserved for individuals who have committed the most egregious crimes. The individuals in question are 16 or 17 year-olds who were involved in a heinous murder and were found unanimously by a jury and judge to be a major participant in the crime that acted with reckless indifference to human life and were deserving of the more serious of the available sentence options. A judge must then agree that the crime was so severe that the individual should not have the right to parole at any point.

At best, SB 399 creates defacto lifer hearings for LWOP juveniles that is costly and unnecessary.
As worst, SB 399 is another attempt to move toward the "watering-down" and eventual elimination of the voter approved penalty of life without the possibility of parole in special circumstance murder.

This is a comprehensive system that already provides ample opportunity for review and appeal. We do not need to have a judge consider new factors, completely unrelated to the crime itself, 10, 15, 20 or 25 years later for the purpose of reducing a convicted individuals sentence.

Saudi Arabia and Kuwait fear the Iranians are not developing a nuclear program for peaceful purposes. However President Obama sees things differently. You see, Obama now agrees with Ahmadinejad-- suggesting that Iran has a right to nuclear ambitions.

Iran has insisted its nuclear program is aimed at generating electricity. But the U.S. and other Western governments accuse Tehran of seeking atomic weapons.

The Washington Post reported, via GatewayPundit:
President Barack Obama suggested that Iran may have some right to nuclear energy _ provided it proves by the end of the year that its aspirations are peaceful.

In a BBC interview broadcast Tuesday, he also restated plans to pursue direct diplomacy with Tehran to encourage it set aside any ambitions for nuclear weapons it might harbor.

"What I do believe is that Iran has legitimate energy concerns, legitimate aspirations," Obama said, adding that the international community also "has a very real interest" in preventing a nuclear arms race.

The president has indicated a willingness to seek deeper international sanctions against Tehran if it does not respond positively to U.S. attempts to open negotiations on its nuclear program. Obama has said Tehran has until the end of the year to show it wants to engage with Washington.

Exit Thought: Israel must just be loving our regime of Hope and Change.

It was 1967 when Ronald Reagan said:

It's now 2009 and the time has come.

The voters spoke on May 19 and they spoke loudly and clearly. They've lost faith in the institutions of state government.

In response, Sacramento must fundamentally change the way business is done. Voters told legislators to manage the money they have now before reaching into our pockets for more. They said stop overspending and bring jobs back to this state. That leads us to day number two in our discussion of California Budget reforms...

The State has created an environment that puts business at a severe disadvantage. Therefore we must stimulate the economy by reducing the impediments to starting new businesses, hiring, working, and investing. The only quick, and effective, remedy is to cut tax rates.

Let's be honest. California's current budget debacle is obscene. The state is standing at the edge of a $24.3 BILLION budget shortfall and still, Democrat lawmakers attempt to push legislation forward that spends more and more. It is beyond comprehension.

For the 2004-05 budget year, state spending was at $79.8 billion. A mere two years later, spending had jumped to more than $101.4 billion. That is a 21 percent increase. In two years.

State Lawmakers spend happy attitude is one of the primary reasons California ranks 47th in the State Freedom Rankings. It is also the reason that Governor Schwarzenegger has proposed draconian cuts in an attempt to dial back California's spending to levels not seen since 1999.

I often hear those on the left criticize the economic policies of Reagan as "voodoo economics" and a failure. Never mind that this ill-informed declaration ignores the fact that America's net worth climbed in real terms from $25 TRILLION in 1980 to $57 TRILLION in 2007. Never mind the fact that it was the "failures" of trickle down economics that created more wealth in the last 25 years (at every income level) than in the last 200 years combined. Yet those same individuals have put into power the very party that has spent the past two decades bankrupting the Golden State.

The reality is this...
Years of a liberal California legislature pursuing a version of liberal utopia have failed.
The “model” of an ever growing government with a thirst for taxpayer dollars has failed. Spending more than the state brings in on an annual basis has failed.
The continual tax and fee hikes of years gone by, have failed.

Californians have been told that the State can only survive by adding more government tentacles and do-gooders and regulations and programs that help save people and businesses from their own bad decisions. Now the voters of California have spoken. And as the American Thinker noted, they have rejected the May 19th ballot propositions because they saw them for what they were - a band aid to cover the twin cancers of structural tax deficiencies and partisan politics masquerading as thoughtful dialog.

Now is the time for reform - true reform.

Before we leave our children with the financial burden of our failures. Before we force California off of that cliff. Throughout this week we will post several common-sense reforms that should be adopted to address the state's budget problem. These reforms will not rely on tax hikes, nor severe budgetary cuts - simply a common sense approach to budgeting and living within our means.

We need to start the conversation because apparently the Legislature is not.